Surrey woman jailed for stealing nearly £500k from school

Debra Poole was a school business manager at Hinchley Wood Primary School in Esher

A woman who stole almost £500,000 from the primary school where she worked has been jailed.

Debra Poole used her position as school business manager at Hinchley Wood Primary School in Esher, Surrey, to transfer funds to herself and increase her own pay.

The 63-year-old was found guilty of four counts of fraud.

At Kingston Crown Court, she was sentenced to six and a half years in prison.

Mrs Poole, of Surbiton, Surrey, also claimed to be working 30 hours per week at the school's breakfast and afterschool club.

The court heard how she abused her position as signatory of the club's bank account between October 2011 and October 2018 by transferring funds, writing out cheques to herself and then cashing them.

This amounted to a total of more than £490,000 over the seven-year period, Surrey Police said.

'Gross breach of trust'

In 2009, she submitted a variation in pay form to the Surrey County Council payroll team, in which she increased her pay scale.

Two years later, she submitted further paperwork increasing her pay scale again.

Det Con Lloyd Ives said: "This gross breach of trust and her elaborate deception spanning some nine years funded an extravagant lifestyle and afforded her luxury holidays and cars which she would not otherwise have been able to afford.

"No doubt Debra would have continued had the school not worked out what was going on and reported the matter to police.

"This resulted in a lengthy and complex investigation which included examining bank accounts and hundreds of documents to prove that she had defrauded the school."

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