Fraudster Mirriam Clark pictured before her sentencing outside Southwark Crown Court today
A
crooked book-keeper at a leading real estate firm who plundered £2m
from her bosses to launch her own property empire in Zambia has been
jailed for four years.
Mirriam Clark, 47, blew the cash on first class flights to Africa and private school education for her children.
She
bought properties in her native Zambia and used stolen funds to
maintain five homes she owned across England and Wales, Southwark Crown
Court heard today.
Clark
was working for Dowley Turner Real Estate (DTRE) from their luxury
offices on London’s Bond Street at the time of the thefts.
Prosecutor Charles Pentangeli said only £295,000 has been recovered by Clark’s former bosses so far.
‘This
fraud was carried out over a three-and-a-half year period while the
defendant was the book keeper for the property and real estate
consultancy firm Dowley Turner Real Estate, based in London.
‘The
partners at the business had both known the defendant for 15 years, she
having previously worked for the previous incarnation of the firm
between 1995 and 2006.
‘Not only did she work as a bookkeeper and a personal assistant to Mr Dowley and Mr Turner but she was their friend.
‘She played a key role with the business’s bank account and tax affairs’.
Clark siphon £1,977,327 from the company over a three-and-a-half-year period, the court heard.
She
confessed to the thefts, which began in late 2009, just days after she
was sacked for work related reasons in March last year.
Clark said she stole the cash to pay off credit card debt and claimed she had been struggling financially since her divorce.
But it emerged she had spent £50,000 of
her employers’ money on 14 return flights to Zambia and paid a £25,000
gift to an ex-employee of the firm.
Even after all Clark’s properties are sold, Dowley Turner may be short of £700,000 as a result of her fraud.
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Clark, left, admitted to the theft of £2 million
from her employers Dowley Turner Real Estate, pictured right. However,
so far the company has only recovered £295,000 and is facing an expected
shortfall of £700,000
Jailing
Clark for four years, Judge Alistair McCreath said: ‘While this fraud
was going on you were buying other properties in Zambia from the
proceeds of your crime.
‘You were taking flights which the partners paid for personally - 14 of them - the maths suggest you weren’t going economy.
‘These thefts were over a substantial period of time, in excess of three years, and you were in a position of trust.
‘You have caused your former employers, your former friends, a significant loss indeed’.
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Clark was sentenced to four years in jail at the Southwark Crown Court today for her large scale fraud
Clark, of Cavalier House, Uxbridge Road, Ealing, West London, admitted fraud by abuse of position.
Detective
Constable Malcolm Duncan, of Westminster Major Crime Unit, said:
‘Mirriam Clark was put in a position of trust by colleagues who she had
worked with for a number of years.
‘However,
she chose to abuse that trust and defrauded her employers out of a
significant amount of money with no consideration of those that had
employed and trusted her.
‘It
is commendable how they have managed to not only stay afloat but also
managed to safeguard their employees’ livelihoods during what has been a
difficult and upsetting time.’
One
of the directors of DTRE, who did not wish to be named, said: ‘From the
outset this has been an extremely harrowing experience, which has not
come close to ending for us, as individuals or a company.
‘Mirriam
Clark has not disclosed to us, the court, or the police where she has
put the money. This has been, and continues to be, the most arduous and
stressful time of me and my business partners’ lives.’
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