Accountant Stole £50,000 to Play Bingo
Monday, 20 January 2014
Some people would go to any lengths to get their online bingo fix – that’s why you need to make sure that you play responsibly before it turns into an issue. Just last month Lisa Carville who is a chartered accountant was sentenced to 18 months in prison for defrauding her clients by over £50,000 to feed her bingo addiction, she will however only serve 6 of those months.
Carville was an employee at Peter O’Hare accountants from January 2010 to September 2012 and she took for herself 55 cheques that totalled £59,000! There was one of the cheques that remained un-cashed which meant that £50,000 was stolen. She had told the court that she needed money for her bingo habit as she lost control of how much she was spending. Although she had played on sites since 2006 she wasn’t yet playing to a dangerous level only logging into her accounts periodically.
It was also revealed that Carville was so remorseful about what she had done she had even attempted suicide, which meant the investigation was delayed until she was treated in hospital. As part of her job – she had HMRC balances for some of her clients at her disposal which meant that if there was any excess money she could keep the cheques for herself and use it to fund her gambling habit.
All of this unravelled when HMRC contacted one of her clients directly with a query on a cheque they had sent them out and it was discovered that Carville had them made out to herself. £5,000 has been paid back by Carville from money she has received from loans and family, however her former employers are suing her for the remainder.
The judge stated that this was a sad occasion as she had horrible things happen in her life such as a fire where 3 of her siblings dies which she overcame and now she can no longer work in that profession. He also mentioned that she had been a hard worker and before this her employers only had good things to say about her.
If we have learned anything about this story it’s that you need to be very careful not to turn anything that was initially a fun pass time into something more sinister.
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