Charity exec swiped £30k in donations and splashed it on KFC takeaways and weekend trips
A CHARITY exec swiped almost £30,000 of donations and splashed the cash on KFC takeaways and weekend trips.
Tanya Gilbert will have to pay back every penny even if it takes 10 years, a judge ruled today.
After a promotion in 2015, Gilbert was given a company credit card for charity essentials and the odd luxury for the disabled young adults she was looking after.
But for more than three-and-a-half years she spent £20 a day on herself and her children, devouring hundreds of fast food meals from KFC, Nando’s, and Pizza Hut.
Defending the mother-of-three, Adam King claimed the 45-year-old's charity fraud scandal was to "put food on the table" for her children.
However, Judge Emma Nott retorted: "This is much more than trips to Asda, she wasn’t buying 20p tins of beans was she?
"It was for her children when it should have been for the young vulnerable adults she was looking after."
Gilbert, who was a former assistant locality manager for the charity Dimensions UK, confessed she had bought items for herself using money collected from donations, totalling an astonishing £28,238.
In a victim impact statement, the charity's chiefs explained that they couldn’t understand why budgets were so overstretched and even considered handing back their hard-earned contract with the local authority.
The court heard that when the thefts started, Gilbert was undergoing treatment for kidney cancer while her 14-year-old daughter was a patient at Great Ormond Street hospital, also suffering with kidney problems.
Mr King said: "She is someone who has suffered quite a lot. She is a single mother of three children and 2015 was a nightmare year for her.
"She was not luxuriating, this is not one of those handbags and luxury holidays cases, this is supermarkets, shops and trips."
Mr King went on: "She was not earning good money and she was not living the life of luxury. She is now working as a cleaner.
"Her children are not young, nor are they well. Her 17-year-old son is to be assessed for autism and her two older daughters are suffering from psychosis and depression. This is not a happy family."
Gilbert had admitted a charge of fraud by false representation after "dishonestly making a gain for herself, or to cause loss to another, or to expose another to a risk of loss".
'FULL OF SELF-PITY'
Sitting at Reading Crown Court, the judge said: "Dimensions UK was your employer, a not-for-profit charity that provides essential services to vulnerable young adults with disabilities.
"From September 11, 2015, to April 5, 2019, you were stealing routinely and regularly putting your own family’s needs first.
"The money should have been spent on essentials and the odd luxury for these young adults who had a background of poverty.
"Instead, you were taking your family to McDonald’s, Nando’s, and Pizza Hut, taking them to the cinema, Warner Brothers studios and tenpin bowling.
"You stole nearly £30,000 and all you have done since being exposed is attempt to avoid the consequences."
You had no regard for the young adults with learning difficulties you cared for.
Judge Emma Nott
She continued: "You are full of self-pity. Your series of thefts were committed against the most vulnerable, these are the people that paid the price.
"You had no regard for the young adults with learning difficulties you cared for but this court will have regard to your young adult children.
"It is for their welfare alone that I am going to take an exceptional course in this case."
Gilbert, of Coningsby, Bracknell, Berks., was sentenced to a two-year prison term, suspended for two years.
She will also have to pay back every penny of the money she stole.
Most read in News
"I do not care if it takes you 10 years," the judge added.
Read More on The Sun
A spokesman for Dimensions UK said: "This fraud was uncovered through internal finance processes. We are satisfied with the outcome of the case."
Dimensions UK was founded in 1976 and aims to support people with learning disabilities, autism and with complex needs.