Woman jailed over £500k accounting fraud
A PURCHASE ledger supervisor at a leading health software company has been jailed for stealing more than £580,000.
Susan Rennie, 51, from Lytham, Lancashire, who worked for Bolton-based Ascribe – now part of EMIS Group – was sentenced to four and a half years in jail at Bolton Crown Court, after pleading guilty to fraud offences at an earlier hearing.
It emerged in court that she had previous convictions for fraud.
Rennie’s role at Ascribe was to for dealing with invoices and she had access to and in-depth knowledge of the firm’s financial transaction systems.
She began to take advantage of her position in October 2009. She would pay the supplier the amount as stated on the invoice, but would also pay the same amount into her own bank account. She also changed some of the supplier’s bank details to her own, so she would be paid instead of them.
In total 105 fraudulent transactions were paid into Rennie’s bank account with a total of £587,471.24.
In January 2015, when the financial accounts were consolidated, a loss in the company’s value was discovered and after further investigation, Rennie’s theft was exposed.
The company contacted Greater Manchester Police and an investigation by its fraud investigation team was launched, which culminated in the arrest of Rennie at her home on March 17 this year.
Detective Constable Kate Mason said: “Rennie was placed in a position of trust, dealing with financial accounts. Sadly, greed got the better of her and she spent the majority of the stolen money on her homes, clothes, socializing, cars and holidays for her and her husband.
“These crimes represented significant financial losses for the victim company and Rennie showed no regard whatsoever for the damage she would cause.”
A spokesperson for EMIS Group said: “This was a case of fraudulent activity by a single employee. This activity took place over a number of years, principally prior to the acquisition of Ascribe Limited by EMIS Group.
“The fraud has had no material impact on EMIS Group as a whole and we are glad that the case has now been brought to a conclusion. We have put in place stringent additional measures to ensure that such an incident could not happen again.
“There is nothing in Ms Rennie’s employment file to indicate any prior criminal activity. The company would not have employed her had it been aware of her previous conviction.”
