A “fraudster” has been jailed after stealing thousands of pounds of donations from a hospice charity while serving there as treasurer, according to Nottinghamshire Police.
Earlier this week, a court found Julie Scotney guilty of stealing three years’ worth of fundraising money intended for the John Eastwood Hospice in Sutton-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire, and spending it on gambling websites.
Nottinghamshire Police said most of the £6,500 Scotney stole came from the charity’s coffee mornings, which happen four times a year and aim to help the hospice provide care for people with life-limiting conditions.
Stolen money funded Scotney’s gambling
The police said the frauds took place between February 2020 and January 2022, “with the discrepancies initially going undiscovered, due to the treasurer’s deception”.
“Unbeknownst to other charity board members, funds weren’t making their way into the group’s bank account but were instead funding Scotney’s gambling,” it said.
The police said Scotney had created a fake bank statement to cover her tracks, which showed “the correct cash balance making its way to the right destination”.
When the charity’s employees began to suspect something was wrong and chase Scotney up for the money, she ignored their emails, phone calls and home visits.
Eventually, Scotney admitted that she had invested the money through her business account before promising to transfer the missing funds back within two weeks.
When she failed to do so, she further delayed before contacting the charity’s chair on 24 December 2021 to say the money had been sent and wish them “a peaceful Christmas”.
Nottinghamshire Police was contacted soon afterwards after Scotney, once again, ignored her colleagues’ attempts to contact her.
Its investigation found that Scotney had accessed over 10 different gambling sites on “a significant number of occasions”.
After pleading guilty to charges of fraud by abuse of position and false accounting, Scotney appeared at Nottingham Crown Court on 12 November.
She was sentenced to 12 months in prison, suspended for two years, and asked to complete 15 rehabilitation activity requirement days.
‘Abuse of trust’
At the court, recorder Balraj Bhatia said: “It’s quite right to describe this as an abuse of trust. This money belonged to this very worthy charity, not to you, but you simply gambled it away.
“To make matters worse, when things were discovered, you told lie after lie, showing no respect for anyone involved with the charity, who were trying to make sure the money collected went to the hospice.
“Even on Christmas Eve, you sent messages wishing everyone a peaceful Christmas and that the transfer from the savings account, which didn’t exist, had gone to the proper account. You then went to sleep on that lie.
“This was a sustained period of dishonesty, which may not have been sophisticated but was certainly determined, as shown by the false accounting charge.”
Detective sergeant Marc Lancaster of Nottinghamshire Police said: “Scotney was entrusted to help ensure the money donated to this charity made its way to its intended target, but instead chose to abuse her position.
“She repeatedly diverted these much-needed funds away from the charity and into her own pockets instead, where it was then spent on gambling websites.
“This deception took place over the space of nearly two years, with Scotney even creating a fake bank statement to try and cover her tracks, before continuing to lie when her ruse was discovered.
“She will have appreciated how much pain her actions would cause but she chose to do it anyway.”
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