Former InStaffs PA jailed for two years

A PA who embezzled more than £165,000 from Staffordshire inward investment agency InStaffs has been jailed for two years.

Stafford Crown Court was told Katie Richardson, aged 30, took money from the firm to finance a lifestyle that included designer clothes, cars, holidays and other extravagances.

Her systematic plundering of the company took place over four years and was exposed after auditors reviewed the books following her departure from InStaffs last year to take up another post elsewhere in the county.

When the auditors completed their review they discovered the company was overspent by £130,000.

There were also invoices from a non-existent suppliers and bogus payments to real suppliers.

The court heard how Richardson was allowed full access to bank accounts and given authority to complete purchase orders and invoices.

However, she forged the signature of her chief executive John de Kanter and diverted cheques into her own back account.

She managed to cover up her stealing by deleting  emails and other subterfuge.

Richardson, left, of Stone, admitted two charges of theft between June 2005 and September last year involving a total of £165,254.

Justice Roderick Evans said she had been employed in a position of trust and had broken that trust by stealing to fund an extravagant lifestyle.

InStaffs, which had been funded by a consortium of local authorities in Staffordshire, was set up to encourage inward investment in the county and in Stoke-on-Trent.

The company was closed in March and Mr de Kanter was made redundant. Its role has now been absorbed into the various authorities.

The closure was unrelated to the court case.