Shropshire mother jailed for £20,000 theft from village hall committee
A mother who stole more than £20,000 from the accounts of the Shropshire village hall committee where she was treasurer to feed her gambling addiction has been jailed for 16 months.
Tracey Hills siphoned the money out of the accounts of the Wattlesborough and Halfway House Village Hall Committee over a period of five years.
She took money from the committee's income and also falsified its accounts to hide her tracks.
Judge Robin Onions said Hills had abused the high degree of trust put in her by her friends and neighbours to take the cash.
"It is perfectly clear that over a period of time you were gambling, spending money you hadn't got and had only one course open to you – to steal from your friends and neighbours. That is what you did," he said.
Mother-of-three Hills, 46, of Marche Lane, Halfway House, near Shrewsbury, had previously pleaded guilty to four counts of theft and two counts of false accounting before she was sentenced yesterday at Shrewsbury Crown Court.
The court heard that between 2006 and 2011, she had taken £20,110 to help feed her "spiralling" addiction to online gambling.
Investigations revealed Hills was spending money with online bingo and casino sites, including Virgin Games and Profitable Play Ltd. She had also borrowed money at high rates of interest from short-term loan company Wonga.
She also provided falsified accounts to the village hall committee for both the 2005/06 and 2006/07 financial years.
Robert Edwards, prosecuting, said Hills had been in sole charge of the committee's bank account until new chairman Toni Preece asked for access.
While Hills initially attempted to prevent anyone else being able to view the accounts, Ms Preece gained access in July 2011 and began an audit of the accounts that began to reveal the scale of the wrongdoing.
Debra White, defending, said Hills had been asked to be treasurer and taken on the role despite having no previous experience.
She said that as her client's gambling "spiralled out of control", she took advantage of her position in a desperate bid to pay back the debts.
Speaking after the verdict, Ms Preece said the discovery of the fraud had been a "huge shock".
"We thought she had just got herself in a muddle. We had no reason to believe she was dishonest, although her behaviour did seem a little strange," she said.
"As soon as she had signed the bank mandate, we went into the bank and ordered a statement and could see there were things that looked a little untoward. I started to look in more depth and I realised it was on quite a big scale. I realised quite quickly we were looking at a huge loss."
Ms Preece said she hoped the community would be able to come back together following the sentencing of Hills after a two-year wait for the case to conclude.
Further court proceedings will attempt to recover the money for the committee, with a property belonging to Hills in Lanzarote on the market to recoup the cash.
