Leicestershire cancer charity scammers jailed

Kalvinder Garcha (left) and Lynn Middleton carried out their fraud over about two years

Two women who scammed a cancer charity and a local council out of thousands of pounds have been jailed.

Kalvinder Garcha and Lynn Middleton created a fake employee at a Leicestershire local authority and pocketed the pay for themselves.

After making almost £40,000 over two years, they used the same trick at a Leicestershire cancer charity.

Garcha was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison and Middleton was jailed for 18 months.

The court heard how the fraud began in 2012 when the pair created a "ghost employee" at Oadby and Wigston Borough Council.

Garcha, 49, worked as head of corporate resources, while Middleton, 49, worked in HR.

The fake employee was Sharon Reeve, Middleton's sister, but she in fact did not work for the council and lived in Spain.

Sharon Reeve made no money but played an "essential" role, the judge said

The prosecution said the money went in to Reeve's account, and was then collected by Middleton, who kept most of it but handed over about £7,000 to Garcha in envelopes at work.

They created documents and emails to make it realistic, claiming Reeve was working from home or coming in to the office when everyone else was gone.

In this way they defrauded the council out of about £37,600.

The prosecution said restructuring and redundancies at the council gave them an opportunity to set up the scam, which came to an end in 2014, when a new IT system was introduced that made it impossible to carry it on.

But the pair then started the same scam at Coping with Cancer, a small Leicestershire and Rutland charity for which Garcha was the chair and Middleton a trustee.

It only lasted seven weeks, but in that time they defrauded it of about £3,600 - all of which went to Middleton.

Garcha, of Carisbrooke Road in Leicester, was found guilty of two counts of conspiracy to commit fraud and two counts of money laundering after a trial at Leicester Crown Court.

Middleton, of Arbor Road in Croft, Leicestershire, pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to commit fraud and two counts of conspiracy to money launder at an earlier stage.

Reeve, 50, of Olympic Close, Glenfield, earned no money from the scam but pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to money launder.

She was handed a sentence of 10 months, suspended for 18 months and was also ordered to do 80 hours of unpaid work and to pay £1,000.

'Disgraceful'

Sentencing, Judge Ebraham Mooncey, said: "Both of you [Garcha and Middleton] were enthusiastic about the fraud.

"This is public money, it is valuable money, it is scarce money.

"At a time when the council made many people redundant to save public funds, you two were in the business of stealing it.

"Buoyed by the success of the fraud on the council you disgracefully embarked on a fraud on a charity.

"Although relatively not a large sum, it was funds that are of huge importance to those in need."

Speaking after the sentencing, Courtney Nangle, from Sue Young Cancer Support, the new name for Coping with Cancer, said: "We're really pleased with this verdict.

"We do not save lives, but if it is palliative care we help people enjoy what little time they have left.

"To deny people that is beyond reproach."