A mum-of-two stole more than £9,000 from her employer by faking refund payments to customers.
Rachel Ward "betrayed" the trust of her bosses at Irish Ferries by issuing bogus ‘refunds’ to customers and transferring the money into her own bank accounts.
The 47-year-old, who was handed a suspended prison sentence for stealing £23,000 off her previous employers, tried to blame blackmailers for her latest bout of dishonesty.
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Ward told a judge that she had been named and shamed on a Wirral Facebook page about stealing £23,000 and consequently men came to her home demanding cash from her and she feared violence.
She claimed she initially gave them money from her state benefits but when she got a job with Irish Ferries she began faking refund payments to customers and got away with £9,100 before her dishonesty came to light.
But her explanation cut no ice with Judge David Potter in a trial of issue hearing at Liverpool Crown Court on Monday, February 14.
Ken Grant, prosecuting, said Ward had worked in the passenger reservations team of the Liverpool office of Irish Ferries.
Mr Grant told the court: “During the period January 25, 2019 to May 1, 2019 she used her position in the company to obtain for herself the sum of £9,109.67 .
"She did this by issuing bogus ‘refunds’ to customers and then transferring the money into her own bank accounts."
The court heard that Ward's dishonesty came to light when a customer asked for a copy invoice audit, which showed he had apparently been given a refund.
When the customer denied this it was checked and found to have been made by Ward.
Ward, of Bray Street, Birkenhead, said she had no recollection of the refund and the day after failed to turn up for work.
Investigations showed 25 refunds where bank card details had been changed were made by Ward and three bank cards used to receive the ‘refunds’.
She failed to attend a disciplinary hearing and was sacked for gross misconduct.
The court heard that in 2017 Ward stole £23,000 from a previous employer, Chris Reynolds Pallets, and received a 20 month prison sentence suspended for two years.
Ward told the judge that she was living on an estate in Noctorum, Birkenhead, and a Wirral crime Facebook Page put up a post about her conviction along with her photograph and address in July 2018.
She claimed: “Comments were obviously made of what should be done to me, dealt with violently."
Ward said she had complained about her next door neighbour and cannabis, and she had been ostracised on the estate and verbally abused by the neighbour.
Ward, who is widowed, also claimed that faeces were put through her letter box and foodstuffs thrown at the window, which she had to clear off at night as she was afraid to go outside in the day.
When she did go out she was approached by two men who said they knew where she lived and where her children went to school. They called at her home demanding money and she gave them a couple of hundred pounds but knew they would keep coming back for more, which they did, she alleged.
Asked by Mr Grant why she had not reported the matter to the police, Ward said she had been afraid uniformed officers would turn up at her home which the neighbours would see.
Further quizzed she denied that she had benefitted from the stolen money by even a penny and had handed it over because she was frightened for herself and her children.
She admitted that none of it would have happened if she had not stolen from her previous employers in 2017.
Ward said said that after losing her job the blackmailers continued calling and she reverted giving them money from her benefits before moving home in July 2020, and she has moved a further two times since then.
Jailing Ward for two years, Judge Potter said he rejected her basis of plea.
He sentenced her to 15 months in prison for the offence and nine months of her suspended sentence to run consecutively.
Ward was also given 18 days imprisonment for breaching her bail to run concurrently.
Mr Grant, prosecuting, said Irish Ferries staff had “been astonished by the behaviour of the defendant and felt hurt and betrayed.”
The company has had to introduce more onerous fraud prevention measures because of her dishonesty.
The court heard Ward has previous convictions for dishonesty in 1992 and 2012 as well as the 2017 offence.
Jo Maxwell, defending, pointed out Ward, who has two teenage children, had kept £19,000 of the money defrauded from Chris Reynolds Pallets and this had been repaid to them.
She said that the latest offence was two and a half years ago and "she poses a low risk of harm and general re-offending.”
Miss Maxwell said Ward had rekindled her relationship with her estranged husband but he passed away in 2017 which had a great impact on her mental health.
She also had a lumpectomy last October and radiation treatment and the time since has had a salutary effect on her.
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