Bookkeeper jailed for stealing £600k from business

Donna Rowand used money taken from her employer to buy multiple cars and pay for holidays

A bookkeeper from Worcestershire has been jailed for five years after she stole more than £600,000 from a family-run business.

Donna Rowand, 47, of Kemble Street, Redditch, was sentenced at Worcester Crown Court after she previously pleaded guilty to fraud by false representation and false accounting.

The court heard Rowand had used the funds on multiple cars, hotels, holidays, concert tickets and cosmetic treatments.

In total, she withdrew £678,636.73 from Concept Display Systems (South West) Ltd between 2019 and 2023, eventually causing the firm to enter voluntary liquidation in 2023.

During her employment, Rowand created accounts for numerous fictional suppliers with similar names to real suppliers used by the company, as a way of concealing her activity.

The payments were then made to her own bank account. She was also the sole user of the company credit card, and took about £46,000 from it during her employment.

The firm's director John Stratton told the court his company, which was founded in 1992, began being pursued for missed payments, HMRC bills and fines, but that Rowand had blamed HSBC.

Before discovering the fraud, he had used his own money to pay staff and said the firm's struggles had made him "physically sick".

'Speechless and horrified'

Reading a victim impact statement in court, Mr Stratton said: "I had a sickening feeling I was dragging the company that my dad had built down."

After he discovered the "hole" in the accounts, he described being left "speechless and horrified".

He added he felt "betrayed" by the employee he had previously trusted enough to look after his young son.

Mr Stratton told the court he had since developed stomach issues, alopecia and mental health problems due to the stress caused by Rowand's crimes.

He added: "This has destroyed most of what made me who I am."

Summarising the hearing and addressing Rowand, Judge Nicolas Cartwright said: "The company went into liquidation because of your actions.

"You must have watched a lot of this happen but you continued to milk it."