A woman who defrauded her employer of almost £200,000 to buy holidays and luxury gifts has been jailed for five years and 10 months.
Anita Mirmohammadi, 31, of Temple Close in Finchley, North London, was caught after she started working at a Brentwood-based business as a manager in their finance team in 2018, entitling her to access to a business credit card.
She used the company card to fund holidays to Mexico, Turkey, Dubai and purchases at Harrods, Selfridges and Mercedes Benz, Basildon Crown Court heard.
However, it wasn’t until four years later, on 21 April 2022, as part of unrelated fraud checks on the company accounts that a pattern of unexplained transactions across the globe were found and banks, police and Action Fraud were contacted.
In a statement, police said her company credit card was used to fund regular spending on Apple, Amazon, eBay, Uber and Zara, as well as Thames Water and Harley Street Dental.
Speaking as he sentenced Mirmohammadi, Judge Shane Collery said: “She was not dependant on stealing to survive and her claim that she does care is hard to accept as she gave no thought to the consequences at all.
“She is a selfish, self-obsessed woman who repeated regular dishonesty, which was systemic and sustained and she must have seen what she was doing.”
Police said a total of £184,675.89 was siphoned from the company – £126,381.19 by credit card and £63,294.70 from the business account via invoices.
Harrods also carried out their own investigation and found Mirmohammadi on CCTV making a purchase with the company card just a month before she was caught.
Police arrested Mirmohammadi at Gatwick Airport as she returned from holiday in Dubai on 22 May 2022.
She was later charged with fraud by false representation on 10 February 2023 and, following a seven-day trial was found guilty at Basildon Crown Court on 14 March 2025.
Speaking after the conviction, Detective Constable Karen Venables said: “This sentence shows the severity of Mirmohmmadi’s offending. This was a calculated, ongoing fraud that would have continued had she not been caught, and I am glad to see the judge recognise this in his sentencing.”
“It was clear from the deception we found in these accounts that Mirmohammadi knew what she was doing was wrong and was trying to cover her tracks,” she added.
Officers said work was ongoing to identify criminal gains that can be confiscated under the Proceeds of Crime Act.
A confiscation hearing is scheduled in November 2025 at Basildon Crown Court.
