A crooked primary school worker who trousered hundreds of thousands of pounds to fund an "extravagant lifestyle" of luxury holidays and cars has been jailed. Debra Poole, 61, relentlessly abused her position for years while in charge of the school's bank accounts.
As well as overseeing the school’s finances, she oversaw the documentation used for any changes to staff pay. Poole was also in charge of managing the invoices and finances of Woody’s, the school’s breakfast and after-school club.
She began working at there as school secretary in February 2000 before being promoted to senior administration officer four years later. But Kingston Crown Court heard how Poole abused her position as signatory of the club’s bank account to the tune of £490,000 from October 2011 until October 2018 by transferring funds, writing out cheques to herself and then cashing the cheques.
