Girl Guides sisters jailed over Gift Aid tax fraud

Sara and Jean Barnbrook spent tens of thousands of pounds on "luxury items" and clothes, Leeds Crown Court heard

Two sisters who used their positions as Girl Guides volunteers in a scheme which defrauded the taxpayer out of nearly £500,000 have been jailed.

Sara Barnbrook used fictitious donations to submit falsified Gift Aid claims to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) over a six-year period, while her younger sister Jean laundered much of the money through her bank account.

The pair spent the cash on “luxury items”, clothes, home improvements and loan repayments, Leeds Crown Court heard.

A judge told Sara, 54, and Jean, 51, that their actions had been motivated by "greed".

The court was told that the pair, both of Templar Lane in Leeds, ran three Girl Guides groups in the east of the city, which became the channel for the fraud.

Between 2013 and 2019 it was said that Sara “exploited” the Gift Aid system, which allows charities to reclaim an extra 25% in tax on donations made to them, prosecutor Angus MacDonald said.

Using the names of people they knew without their knowledge, the elder sister submitted false claims for Gift Aid totalling more than £482,000, of which around £446,000 was paid out to the Girl Guides accounts by HMRC.

Offences committed 'out of greed'

Nearly a third of the overall total was withdrawn in cash directly from those accounts, it was said.

The pair "manipulated" oblivious volunteers connected with the Girl Guides groups, by using their identities to sign off bank transfers which siphoned much of the rest of the money into personal bank accounts.

Between them, the sisters spent more than £90,000 on luxury items, nearly £50,000 on clothes and nearly £70,000 on loan repayments, while Jean Barnbrook spent £40,000 on home improvements, Mr MacDonald said.

The ploy was only rumbled in 2019 when Jean Barnbrook made a call to her bank chasing after a Gift Aid claim she believed was due to one of the groups.

That group had, however, been closed down 18 months earlier, the court was told.

As the net closed in, a "fictitious" letter from someone called "Louise" apparently confessing to the fraud was written on Sara's computer, in what was described as a "last desperate" attempt to divert attention away from them.

Mitigating for Sara Barnbrook, who had earlier pleaded guilty to one charge of cheating the public purse, Anastasis Tasou said her offences been borne out of a desire to improve her "standard of living".

The court was told the pair were "equal participants" in the fraud

Mitigating for Jean Barnbrook, who had admitted one charge of money laundering, Glenn Parsons said the younger sister had been neither the "architect" nor the "driving force" behind the scheme and had played a "subservient" role in the offending.

But Judge Mushtaq Khokhar said the younger sister had been an "equal participant" in the "sophisticated" scheme.

"This was a fraud against the public purse and people such as you who commit these offences do so out of greed," he said.

Sara Barnbrook was jailed for three years, while Jean Barnbrook was sentenced to 30 months in prison.

Speaking after sentencing, Tim Atkins from HMRC said: "Tax fraud is not a victimless crime.

"It has real consequences for the public services we all rely on."

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