Jail for employee who stole £136,000

Date published: 30 April 2009

A woman who stole more than £130,000 from her employer has today, Thursday 30 April 2009, been jailed.

Paula Chisholm age 40, of Hazel Avenue, Bury, admitted twelve counts of fraud at Manchester Crown Court Crown Square. She also had a further 54 similar offences taken into consideration.

She has been sentenced to 16 months in prison.

The money was stolen from the Instituto Ceventas - a Spanish cultural centre funded by the Spanish government and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs - where Chisholm had worked for about 13 years, most recently as a senior secretary.

Over the years Chisholm became a valued and trusted employee and was authorised to supervise and access bank cheques for the company.

Between February 2003 and December 2008, Chisholm stole £135,999.17 by cancelling numerous cheques that had been made out to the Inland Revenue to pay the monthly taxes on staff wages. After cancelling the cheques she would make the next one payable to herself for the same amount, forging their names.

Police Constable Jo Shaw, from Bootle Street police station, said: "While Chisholm has admitted what she has done and shown considerable remorse, her actions throughout were nothing short of deceitful and selfish.

"Chisholm paraded as a reliable and competent employee, gaining the trust of all those she worked with while all the time ripping them of to the tune of tens of thousands of pounds."