A convicted fraudster who fleeced around £37,000 from a foundation set up in her late brother's name will pay back a nominal sum of just £1. Kayleigh Pepper targeted the Rich Foundation, which she helped set up and run in memory of her brother, who tragically died after a knife incident.
As reported by the Hull Daily Mail, Pepper had previously claimed that she had just £300 to her name but she is now said to have no money at all that could be seized as compensation. She was jailed for 20 months at Hull Crown Court in March and a Proceeds of Crime confiscation hearing has now been told that she, in effect, has no money or assets.
The court was told that the adjusted agreed benefit figure of the scam was £37,000 but that she had no means to pay that. Pepper, 37, formerly of Hardwick Avenue, Hull, but now living out of the area, was ordered to pay a nominal £1 within seven days or face one day in prison in default.
The case resurfaced at a Proceeds of Crime mention hearing arranged to investigate whether any of the plundered money could be recovered and repaid.
Prosecutor Ashleigh Metcalfe claimed at the previous hearing that the estimated benefit figure of the money that Pepper was, at that time, said to have fraudulently taken was £47,748. "I don't believe it's in dispute," said Miss Metcalfe. But Pepper, who was sitting in the row behind her in court, instantly said: "Absolutely it's in dispute."
The court heard that, on the day that she was jailed, Pepper turned up to court with £2,000 that she was offering to hand over towards compensation. Miss Metcalfe said that Pepper pleaded guilty on the basis that she took only £20,000 but this was not accepted by the prosecution.
The £2,000 that she had offered in compensation could not be accepted that day and the prosecution believed that it had since been "dissipated away". It was claimed by Pepper that £1,700 of the £2,000 belonged to another person and it had apparently since been handed back to him. The prosecution did not know where that money had gone.
Pepper said previously: "The £2,000 in question is some money that I brought to court on March 11." She claimed that the prosecution had only become aware of its existence because of what she called her own "honesty" in making it available.
She said at the earlier hearing that she had two young children, then aged 11 and eight, and they were now sleeping on air bag beds, not proper beds. "If I had cash now, my children would be sleeping on beds," she said.
"I never, ever imagined in a million years that I would get in this position and I can only apologise sincerely for the hurt I have caused. I deserve the chance to move forward with my children. I just felt I needed to say that."
At a previous hearing, Pepper admitted fraud by abusing her position as a trustee of the Rich Foundation to make a gain for herself by using its money for her own purposes between July 1, 2018 and April 9, 2020. She is said to have used money from the foundation to spend on her own food and clothes that would be of no benefit to the foundation.
She started the Rich Foundation after her brother Richard, 25, known as Rich, was stabbed to death in a shocking street attack in Egton Street, east Hull, in 2015. The man who delivered the fatal blow to Rich's heart, Daniel Flatley, was jailed for 11 years for manslaughter.
Pepper had become a leading anti-knife campaigner and had spoken out last year after the tragic death of Corey Dobbe in Hull. She had appealed to the people of Hull to take knife crime seriously and wanted Corey's family to find justice.
She spearheaded Hull Live's No More Knives campaign aimed at educating people about the dangers of carrying knives and she did so in her brother's memory. She said at the time: "Rich was a big lad, standing over 6ft tall and weighing around 18 stone, yet one stab wound ended his life
"The blade tore through several organs, almost cracking his eighth rib, eventually piercing his heart. The wound caused so much damage internally he had five full blood transfusions. The hole in his heart was finally repaired but it was too late. He was pronounced dead, leaving us absolutely heartbroken."
Pepper was also at the forefront of a Gofundme page to raise money for the funeral of six-year-old Stanley Metcalf, who died after a tragic incident in which he was shot by his great-grandfather, Albert Grannon, in July 2018.
Grannon, then 79, initially refused to accept responsibility for the tragedy in Sproatley and said that Stanley died after being hit by a ricochet from the air rifle he fired. He was jailed at Sheffield Crown Court for three years in 2019 after admitting manslaughter.
The appeal had a £2,000 target and the page later showed that £2,425 was raised from 110 donors. Pepper said at the time: "We'd really like to help by raising some funds to pay towards the funeral costs.
"No parent should ever have to worry about finances when it comes to losing a child. The loss is tragic enough. Please join us in our efforts to contribute something to the family so they can give their beautiful, bubbly, football-crazy boy a truly beautiful send-off.
"Rich Foundation supports bereaved children and families through social activity, networking and partnerships."
