A FORMER employee of the Hailsham Memorial Institute Club who stole more than £100,000 from the venue appeared in court recently has received a 24 month prison sentence, suspended for 24 months.
64-year-old Jeanette Gardner appeared at Chichester Crown Court to be sentenced following her conviction in October.
She was appointed the paid role of administrator in 2006 and engineered absolute financial control of the club. However, in 2019, club members became concerned about Gardner’s actions when they failed to receive confirmation of receipt of funds raised at a ‘Full Monty’ charity event held by HMI in aid of Orchid Cancer Charity.
After an internal investigation conducted by HMI, Gardner was dismissed from her role in August 2019. The matter was then reported to Sussex Police.
A three-year investigation ensued which uncovered large scale frauds, thefts and abuse of position offences.
The investigation found Gardner had stolen from HMI and made fraudulent claims against the club. These included falsifying her employment contracts to pay herself a higher salary, giving herself pay rises without authorisation, withholding payments to HMRC, false accounting and laundering £26,000 of the stolen money out of the country to India.
She falsified weekly accounts to steal cash from the social club and would often include personal purchases in receipts claimed back from the club. Payments were also received into her bank account for events and services provided by HMI.
Gardner failed to pass on money raised at HMI fundraising events to charities, including approximately £3,000 to the male cancer charity Orchid.
During the investigation, Gardner also brazenly made fraudulent claims for Universal Credit which were uncovered by police.
Her trial began on 18 September 2023 at Hove Crown Court. During the trial, she pleaded guilty to fraud by abuse of position but maintained her innocence in relation to all the other charges.
On Friday 20 October, Gardner was found guilty of eight of the 11 charges against her – four counts of fraud by abuse of position; fraud by false representation; theft; transferring criminal property; and fraud by failing to disclose information.
She was found not guilty of three charges – two counts of fraud by abuse of position; and one count of theft.
