A mother who defrauded a publishing company where she worked of more than £10,000 has avoided a jail sentence after a judge expressed concern about the ‘impact upon your young child’ if he sent her to prison.
Rachel Vickers, 33, from Stockport, abused a ‘position of trust’ at Practical Publishing Ltd by dispatching 153 ‘circuit machines’ to a fake customer but the kit was sold on and Vickers pocketed the cash, prosecutor Emily Calman told Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court on Monday.
Vickers worked for Stockport-based Practical Publishing for seven years but bosses launched an audit when they discovered ‘irregularities in the order books’. It was discovered that replacement orders were sent to a woman who was not a customer of the firm, the court was told.
Equipment worth £10,385 had gone missing but the defendant only benefitted by about £6,000, the court heard.
The court heard Vickers had one previous conviction also for a fraud committed in 2015 when she failed to inform Trafford Council that her father had died.
Verity Quaite, defending, told the court her client, who has a seven-month-old baby, only benefitted by £6,100 because her final wage was not paid by her employer. She said her client was not in a position to pay a fine.
The Judge, Recorder Mr Ainsworth, said: “This is not your first conviction for fraud in these circumstances.”
Rachel Vickers
(Image: Manchester Evening News)
The judge said the defendant’s crime had been ‘an abuse of a position of trust’ but he noted she had a six-month old child and said he would suspend her prison sentence, noting the ‘impact upon your young child’ if she was sent to prison.
Vickers, of Belmont Street in Stockport, was handed an eight-month jail sentence suspended for 18 months after she had earlier admitted a single charge of fraud by false representation between October 1 and October 22, 2023. She was also ordered to carry out 25 days of rehabilitation activity.