A Pembrokeshire Council worker stole almost £7,000 to fund her gambling addiction.
Karen Deakin worked as a purchase card officer for Pembrokeshire County Council, and used her own purchase card and those of two former employees of the council to make £6,915.24 of unauthorised purchases between March 21 and October 30 in 2024.
She was anticipating the department to have spent just over 50 per cent of its budget by that point.
However, it had actually spent 365 per cent of its budget for consumables – which account for stationery and general office supplies.
Further investigations found more than £3,000 of payments had been made between September 4 and 20 from the payment card of a member of staff who had retired at the end of August.
These included payments to Amazon and Specsavers, and a £535 rent payment to Pembrokeshire Council's housing department.
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Further investigations found that the rent payment made by the card related to the defendant, and messages revealed Deakin had asked her colleague to return her payment card directly to her.
The defendant was suspended from her role.
A further eight transactions totalling more than £1,500 had been made from another former employee's payment card in September – despite that employee leaving in July.
Eighteen payments made using the defendant's card were also traced, adding up to more than £2,200 between March and October, 2024.
Deakin changed her credit limit on her card on several occasions, and made changes on the system to setting herself as her own line manager.
She had also made changes to the two former employees' line manager on the system.
The total amount of fraudulent payments amounted to £6,915.24, the prosecution said.
Deakin made full admissions to the council, and was dismissed for gross misconduct.
The matter was reported to the police, and Deakin told officers she had been suffering financial difficulties as a result of a gambling addiction.
Deakin, 56, of Fleming Crescent in Haverfordwest, pleaded guilty to fraud by abuse of position.
Swansea Crown Court heard that she had three previous convictions for 14 offences, including theft by an employee and false accounting in August, 1996, obtaining property by deception in May, 2004, and fraud in November, 2012, for making false representations for gain.
“Ms Deakin knows this offending is going to be viewed in an extremely dim light,” said Emily Bennett, appearing for Deakin.
She said Deakin pleaded guilty at the first opportunity, and had stayed out of trouble since 2012 beforehand.
“She was on the right path for a considerable amount of time, before falling back off it,” Ms Bennett said.
Ms Bennett said Deakin’s gambling addiction had “spiralled”, leading to her saying she “felt trapped” and that “there was no way out”.
Judge Geraint Walters ordered Deakin to repay the full amount to the council.
He sentenced her to 12 months, suspended for two years.
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