Charity manager jailed for fraud
BBC News / 6th February 2009
A charity finance boss has been jailed for paying £500,000 into her own bank account in a systematic fraud carried out over a period of 10 years.

Lesley Pickens, 59, created fictitious invoices to con her employers Rathbone, despite telling them she had previously been in prison for deception. Pickens, of Knowls Lane, Oldham, admitted 25 counts of fraud and 112 offences were taken into consideration. She was jailed for three years and four months at Manchester Crown Court. The court heard how she carried out the fraud each month to help pay off her credit card bills. Bogus payments She was appointed by the charity, which organises training for young people, in 1987. She rose through the ranks to take the role of the finance manager, in which she was in charge of making payments to suppliers. In February 1998 she created a false invoice and used her password to fill in her own personal details and transfer £1,2559 to her bank account. She continued to process the bogus payments monthly as the sum of monies escalated - to the point that between 2006 and 2007 she stole more than £66,000. Pickens was found out when in April 2008 she took compassionate leave following the death of her husband. All of that money went on your lifestyle for making your day-to-day life more comfortable Judge Michael Henshell Management noticed the irregularities while she was off work and alerted police. She then admitted stealing the money, saying she was having financial problems. The court was told Pickens had previously served two months in jail for obtaining property by deception, when she used bogus cheques to pay monies into her account. The offence was committed against her then employer while working as a book-keeper, but she chose to tell Rathbone about the conviction. Sentencing her, Judge Michael Henshell said: "The effect of that amount of money going from the charity must have been considerable. "All of that money went on your lifestyle for making your day-to-day life more comfortable." He added she had breached the trust placed in her by Rathbone, who had taken her on despite knowing about her criminal background.