A crooked council worker who stole tens of thousands of pounds from vulnerable children has been jailed for four years.
Stephanie Standen abused her position to steal £128,000 from funds earmarked for the fostering budget and blamed her behaviour on an 'extensive drug habit'.
The 30-year-old stole the money whilst working for Croydon Council between September 2016 and September 2017 by creating false records of fake foster service providers, reports MyLondon .
In her role she had access rights which allowed her to make amendments to an electronic system which made payments to Croydon foster carers and other people who provided services.
Standen put £64,628.39 into bank accounts in her name and spent all of the money before she was arrested in April 2018.
She also split the rest of the money among her associates.
The fraudster was caught when an investigator for Croydon Council identified a number of anomalies in the electronic accounting system.
A number of payments were identified where edits had been made to the records – these edits were made by a user number attributed to Standen.
Standen denied involvement in the offence until the days leading to her trial, when she then pleaded guilty to fraud by abuse of position.
She was jailed for four years at Croydon Crown Court on Wednesday.
Detective Constable Simon Allen, who led the investigation, said: “The loss of more than £128,000 to Croydon Council had a significant impact on services for children who required care from the fostering budget.
"The loss meant that children who needed services were not able to be provided with them as there were insufficient funds in the budget following the fraud.
“Standen was in a position of trust and nobody could have predicted how she would have abused this.
"She had no previous convictions and blamed her behaviour on an extensive drug habit."
Her associates were all identified and arrested between April and June 2018 and convicted of money laundering offences at the same hearing as Standen.
- George Sharpless, 25, received £11,000 from Standen. He was given an 18-month suspended sentence
- Simeon Brown, 39, received £9,528.83 from Standen. He was given 120 hours unpaid work and ordered to pay £2,000 compensation
- Hollie West, 31, received £11,884.14 from Standen. She was given an 18-month suspended sentence
- Sonny Veerasawmy, 31, received £16,150 from Standen. He was given an 18-month suspended sentence and ordered to pay £6,000 compensation
- Steven Little, 33, received £4,150 from Standen. He was given 100 hours unpaid work and order to pay £4,150 compensation.
Councillor Hamida Ali, cabinet member for safer Croydon and communities, said: “As in this case, we always seek prosecution and the toughest penalties against perpetrators of fraud, including council staff.
"Standen abused her position of trust as a business support officer to steal funds intended for some of our most vulnerable children.
"We hope the sentence acts as a deterrent and sends a strong message that we will not hesitate to act against those who commit these crimes.”
