An office manager who used company funds to pay restaurant bills and rent walked from court.

Suspending her 10 month jail sentence for two years, Judge Michael Gledhill KC branded Nicola Smith, 37, ‘utterly dishonest’.

Prosecutor Christopher Pembridge told Oxford Crown Court on Thursday that Smith began working as an office manager at Wipotec in Carterton in January 2019.

She was second to the company’s general manager, occupying what the court heard was a senior position of trust in the company.

Mr Pembridge said: “She was responsible for office administration, employee expenses, mobile phones and cash. She was trusted to deal with those by the company.”

She was also authorised to use company credit cards for ‘legitimate’ expenses.

She used a card bearing the name of the firm’s general manager to pay her bills. The payments were ‘low level’, the prosecutor said, including for household items delivered to her home and a payment to a garage for repairs to her car.

Smith took advantage of a company benefit that allowed employees to be paid in advance. Having been advanced her salary, she then covered her tracks to make it look in the computer system like she had not been paid – leaving her employers £2,200 out of pocket.

Finally, when a staff member working for her left the company in May 2019 she did not cancel his company credit card as she should have done.

Between July and August 2019, she used the card on 67 separate occasions for ‘various personal expenses’ including restaurant and hotel bills, rent and utility bills.

In total, she took £6,557.86 from her employers.

Smith, of Tamina Close, Carterton, pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to three charges of fraud. She had no previous convictions.

Richard Davies, mitigating, noted his client had been ranked a ‘very low risk’ by the probation service. She was a mother of three, including two young children, and was in employment.

“I ask the court what is the benefit and to whom of sending this lady to prison,” Mr Davies asked.

“It’s certainly of no benefit to society. It’s of no benefit to the company.”

Sentencing, Judge Michael Gledhill KC said Smith had been ‘utterly dishonest’.

“Between February and August of 2019, you were in a highly trusted position of being the office manager of this company,” he said.

“You were second only to the general manager and so you were trusted with a number of important duties, which allowed you access for example to the accounts, to credit cards and other areas where anybody who was dishonest could pocket money and you did that over those months, taking a total of £6,557.86.”

She received 10 months’ imprisonment suspended for two years. Judge Gledhill accepted that some would regard that as unduly lenient, but cited the delay, the fact that she had stayed out of trouble since her arrest in 2019 and was responsible for two young children.

Smith must do 120 hours of unpaid work, up to 10 rehabilitation activity requirement days and pay £6,557 in compensation.

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This story was written by Tom Seaward. He joined the team in 2021 as Oxfordshire's court and crime reporter.  

To get in touch with him email: Tom.Seaward@newsquest.co.uk

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