Bingo boss jailed for theft
By Elena
15th April, 2008
Helen Patricia Walker, 39, was jailed yesterday for stealing £31,000 from her company safe at the Buckingham Bingo where she has been working for over five years. The bingo boss took the money, left the IOU in the safe and departed from the club like nothing ever happened.
This unpleasant occasion was not the first sin the on the lady’s account. She also admitted to the fraud charge to the sum of £500 that she managed to acquire by cashing in vouchers, which are normally given to customers to attract them into the bingo hall.
Despite the fact that Helen Walker was paid £46,000 p.a., she was still in need for cash due to her huge depths of up to £40,000.
She was going to sell the house and give the money back but it was never returned.
According to Jane Waugh, it was a usual thing for stuff to leave notes with how much money they borrowed from the safe, i.e. IOU.
Apparently Walker stole the cash at the time when she broke up with her girlfriend. The fact that the safe was down got discovered after investigation into the business financial matters started. It was clear soon after that the cash have been disappearing for the whole twelve months, since August 2006.
Aside from Walker’s IOU note with the details of £31,000 gone, there were also £16,000 missing most likely on other occasions.
Walker was arrested August 29, 2007 and despite staying mute for the first interview, admitted to taking money on the second questioning, but insisted she didn’t intend to keep the cash and was trying to find means of getting it back.
Walker started stealing cash when she broke up with her girlfriend and from then on was able to see their 19-month-old daughter at the weekends. Walker wasn’t the natural mother of the kid.
The stolen cash was used to cover her increased costs of leaving, due to the loans’ interest rates and growing mortgage repayment issues.
Ms Waugh insisted that the bingo organization should have reconsidered the way it was operating, as the practice of leaving IOU notes by the staff when borrowing money is highly unprofessional, risky and facilitates theft in itself.
"For a couple of months, things in Miss Walker's life went wrong for her,” pleaded Waugh.
"She didn't deal with things, they got away from her and she let her debts get away from her. This is a woman who was trusted and because she was trusted she wrote it down. She wanted people who know she was doing it because she was going to pay it back. Her life is in tatters and she has been reduced to working in a call centre, which for somebody who managed people and was also responsible for, has been very difficult for her," explained Waugh.
The Judge, Guy Whitburn, said this: "I am urged to suspend the sentence of custody or give a community order, I cannot. It is very difficult to see how you managed to spend do much in such a small amount of time."
Walker is now sentenced for 15 months for the theft, with additional six months alongside for te charge of the fraud.
