Crooked bookkeeper stole £100k from cladding contractor

Grant Prior 5 years ago
Share

A mother and daughter stole around £100,000 from a Cambridgeshire cladding contractor by using a company credit card to fund theme park trips, vets bills, a private car number plate and house cleaners.

Nicola Hayter, 51, of Ely worked as a bookkeeper for contractor Retrofit UK from 2009 to 2016.

In January 2016 the company held a suspension meeting with Hayter because she had taken a loan from them and had asked for £600 but then taken a further £3,000.

Hayter had also used the company’s trade account to purchase personal items, Cambridge Crown Court heard.

Retrofit looked deeper into their accounts and discovered Hayter had overpaid her own bonuses and spent even more money on the trade account.

Hayter had spent large amounts on the company credit card but had been paying the bills off at the end of the month to avoid being caught.

For a period of time, Hayter’s daughter Emily Griffiths, 26, of  Waterbeach, had also worked for Retrofit.

Investigations revealed Hayter had overpaid her daughter’s wages and transferred even more money from the company’s bank account to Griffiths when she was no longer working there.

Hayter had also used the company’s bank account to pay for Griffiths’s house to be cleaned.

In police interviews Hayter admitted spending some money on the company’s card but suggested others also used it.

She admitted transferring Griffiths £8,500 to ‘help her out’ but said she was going to pay it back.

Hayter told officers she had overpaid her own bonus by mistake and claimed she had upped the limit on the company’s card to pay the company’s bills.

When Griffiths was interviewed, she admitted also using the company card at Legoland as well as for car repairs and new tyres.

But she claimed Hayter had the authority to let other people use it.

Both Hayter and Griffiths stood trial at Cambridge Crown Court earlier this month.

Hayter pleaded guilty to theft while the trial was ongoing and jurors later found Griffiths guilty of possessing criminal property.

At the same court Griffiths was sentenced to 34 weeks in prison, suspended for 18 months.

She was also ordered to complete a 25-day rehabilitation activity requirement.

Hayter is due to be sentenced on April 18 after being released on police bail and given the chance to repay the money she stole.

DC Kate Housham said: “Hayter and Griffiths used the business’s bank card for their own gain with absolutely no consideration for others as they stole from their own employer.

“This kind of behaviour is unacceptable and we will not tolerate it in our communities.

“Their actions have caused their colleagues a lot of distress and I hope they will now reflect on the effect they have had on the people around them.”

Latest news

Police ban mobile cranes from roads over Easter

Plant hire bosses livid as forces across the country extend abnormal load embargoes
4 hours ago

Director jailed for exposing workers to asbestos

Ten tonnes of asbestos insulating board stripped out by unqualified workers
8 hours ago

Site labour rates start rising again

Industry's biggest payroll firm says "it feels like things could be turning round"
13 hours ago

Council finds extra £33m for Buckinghamshire link road

South East Aylesbury Link Road costs soar by nearly 30% to £147m
12 hours ago

Quartet win £490m North West & Central railway works deal

Skanska, Kier, Octavius Infrastructure and Story Contracting bag major projects deal
13 hours ago

Unite Students plans first major mixed-use scheme

Developer's first mixed BTR and PBSA project to be built in Edinburgh
1 day ago

Galliford Try names new finance director

Rentokil's Kris Hampson joins contractor to replace Andrew Duxbury
14 hours ago

Council boss hits out at bat threat to £274m road job

Natural England could scupper scheme due to be built by Ferrovial
14 hours ago

Hydrogen-fuelled diggers to be allowed onto highways

Government to raise barrier to widespread use of hydrogen fuelled plant in construction
1 day ago

Plans in for £118m Government hub in Darlington

Work pencilled to start later this year on new home for 1,450 civil servants
1 day ago

New contractor highlights Henry Construction jobs on website

New firm lists jobs by failed contractor to show its experience
2 days ago

Contractors line up for £2.6bn Anglian Water AMP8 deal

Eight big names land places on pioneering @one Alliance
2 days ago

McAleer & Rushe bags first major later living project

Work to start this month on 167-flat Royal Tunbridge Wells project
2 days ago

Kier starts first all-electric prison houseblock job in Kent

Next-generation fully electric T60 prison houseblock to be built at HMP Elmley
2 days ago

Keepmoat sees better times ahead in housing market

Profits dip in 2023 despite construction of record number of new homes
2 days ago

Vistry signs partnership deals for 1,900 mixed tenure homes

West Sussex former airfield and Newmarket sites to break ground
2 days ago

Turnover at Wates tops £2bn for first time

Construction division exceeds £1bn turnover as average contract value hits record high of £48.3m
3 days ago

L&G looks to sell Cala Homes in exit from house building

Insurance giant reported to be preparing to offload 3,000 homes-a-year developer
3 days ago

Multiplex profit almost trebles as margin hits 5.5%

Revenue jumps 20% to £675m as big London scheme complete
3 days ago

TopHat puts plans to open huge Corby factory on hold

Advanced manufacturing facility was due to employ 1,000 people
3 days ago

Laing O’Rourke lands Calderdale hospital job

Enabling works to start by the end of this year at West Yorkshire site
3 days ago

Go-ahead for £475m Sunderland film and TV studios

Work to start this year on first phase Corwn Work studios
3 days ago

Willmott Dixon set for £20m Stockport Community Hub

Planning decision expected in June on Marple leisure and health clinic project
3 days ago

Police hunt for blundering dumper truck thief

Raider drove into a fence before getting stuck on a bank
3 days ago

Beattie Passive files administration notice

Passivhaus pioneer has been in business for more than ten years
4 days ago

McAlpine set for £50m space and tech centre

Northumbria Uni sign pre-con deal for new satellite research hub
4 days ago

VolkerFitzpatrick seals £34m Kent road viaduct

Work to start next year on Sturry Link Road near Canterbury
4 days ago

Eight win £600m Scottish civil engineering framework

Balfour, Farrans, Graham and Morgan Sindall win major works lot
4 days ago

Site engineer crushed to death by excavator

22-year-old victim died just months after graduating from university
5 days ago

NG Bailey fined £135,000 after hospital site death

Worker died after striking overhead beam while navigating a mobile elevating work platform
6 days ago

Contractor services