AN accounts manager has been branded as ‘thoroughly dishonest’ after she defrauded a company out of around £40,000.
Emma Beech’s treachery was only discovered after she let slip her actions on a date, leading to a review of finances during her employment.
When confronted by authorities, the 40-year-old ‘pointed the finger’ at others and denied a charge of fraud by abuse of position amounting to approximately £90,500 between 2014 and 2022, which she denied.
However, she changed her plea to two weeks before her trial on the basis of an overall sum in the region of £40,000 between 2019 and 2022.
She was sentenced at Chester Crown Court, where Ryan Rothwell, prosecuting, explained that the defendant began working for Austrian firm Romer Labs UK in around 2010 at its Runcorn site and remained there until April 2022.
She was the company's accounts, logistics, and site manager, with substantial responsibility for the financial side of the UK business and access to company accounts.
Beech was trusted with considerable autonomy, and her colleagues regarded her as ‘reliable and trustworthy’, the court heard.
She could use the firm’s corporate card directly, use the company cheque book and banking arrangements, order goods through genuine supplier accounts, submit expenses, and use the company's postage and courier facilities.
In parallel, she operated her own eBay account named ‘oneineverycorner’, through which goods obtained through a genuine supplier account could be sold, with company postage or courier facilities used to send them to buyers.
The fraud investigation found that a dishonest transaction did not necessarily look dishonest on its face, as it could be concealed among ordinary-looking company expenditure.
The fraud was not discovered until later in 2022 after the defendant left her employment with Romer Labs.
Beech met a man through a dating app and they went on three dates, the last of which saw her disclose taking company property and the degree of control she enjoyed over expenditure.
The date was sufficiently concerned that he contacted Romer Labs’ managing director, and the company began to examine records that had not aroused suspicion.
Discrepancies involving supplier purchases, the corporate credit card, expense claims, cheques, and the use of the company's postage and courier arrangements were identified, and Cheshire Police was notified.
The fraud took a number of forms, with company money used directly by the defendant to pay off her personal debts amounting to around £5,000, with payments given false references to appear as ordinary company expenditure.
Also, Beech withdrew £2,800 in cash from machines in and around Helsby and Frodsham and used the company credit card to buy shoes, cosmetics, and clothes, to visit a hair salon, and in Hotel Chocolat.
There were also repeated supermarket, Amazon, fuel, and DVLA transactions, with one Tesco receipt for ice cream, wine, razors, and women's slippers.
Beech also abused the company's expense system, with a claim of £121.67 for laptop leads in fact being spent on a leather bag ordered in her name.
Other expense examples included an inflated home broadband claim, vehicle tax, delivered to the defendant's home, and ‘gummy bears for 10th birthday celebrations’.
The fraud continued with the defendant taking company property without permission and ordering goods through the company specifically to sell on her eBay account.
Between January 2020 and April 2022, her eBay account recorded 2,236 sales with a total value of £34,335.79, including repeated sales of hard drives at £40 to £55 each and, in one instance, £610-worth of second-class stamp sheets.
In a further abuse of her role, the company’s own courier contract would then be used to fulfil those sales.
Beech was arrested on April 26, 2024, and interviewed, when she answered ‘no comment’ throughout.
In an impact statement, the business described a sense of betrayal felt by colleagues who trusted her.
Mr Rothwell told the court that the defendant has four previous convictions for 15 offences, including five for theft and eight for obtaining property by deception.
He also said that the fraud involved significant planning over a sustained period of time, and the court heard that she initially tried to point blame on other people.
In mitigation, Stella Hayden, defending, referenced the pressures of work, but judge Michael Leeming stated that this was ‘no excuse for putting her hands in the till’.
“In reality, she is a thief and has been since her teenage years,” he said.
Ms Hayden said that her client has stayed out of trouble for 20 years and has been struggling with her mental and physical health.
It was also said that she knows what she did was wrong and that she needs help, and that her innocent daughter would lose her home if Beech was to be sent to prison.
Before sentencing, Judge Leeming commented that he was ‘wholly unimpressed’, stating that the defendant has ‘told every excuse in the book’ and that her references ‘appeared to be AI-generated’.
He said: “You are thoroughly dishonest. This case is being reported by the press, and your neighbours will find out how dishonest you are.
“The Probation Service says that you can be managed in the community with a mental health treatment requirement.
“I am just about persuaded on this occasion that I can suspend the sentence.”
Beech, of Neston Close in Helsby, was sentenced to 30 months in prison, but this was suspended for the next two years.
She must also undertake 20 rehabilitation activity requirement days and complete a 12-month mental health treatment requirement.
The defendant will appear back in court in March next year for a Proceeds of Crime Act hearing to determine how much, if any, of her ill-gotten gains she must repay.
Judge Leeming added: “I make it absolutely clear that if you breach any requirement, you will be brought back to court, and I will send you to prison.
“No ifs, buts, or maybes – it will happen – I will remember you and this case, and you will go to prison straight away.”
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