More than £12,000 was stolen from a children’s centre in North Kensington by its business manager.

The crime by Chenelle Joseph-Thomas only came to light when police began investigating the theft of money from a school in Wandsworth.

She was given a suspended prison sentence after admitting to stealing more than £24,000 in total.

Joseph-Thomas, from Fulham, was being investigated by the police over allegations of stealing £12,000 from her former employer in Wandsworth.

Officers informed Golborne and Maxilla Children’s Centre, based in Notting Hill, where Joseph-Thomas had previously worked, and it involved Kensington and Chelsea Council’s fraud team, which found £12,357.93 had been taken.

Joseph-Thomas, who lives in Carmelita House in Dawes Road, admitted her guilt in her first police interview.

In her first court appearance at Westminster Magistrates Court on July 18 she pleaded guilty to both offences, but sentencing was referred to Southwark Crown Court due to the seriousness of the offences.

On Wednesday (August 16) she received a 20 months in prison, suspended for two years, 250 hours of unpaid work and £100 victim surcharge.

Southwark Crown Court

Commenting on the case, Cllr Emma Will, head of education at the council, said: “Our fraud team deal with a host of challenges, but have built up a strong relationship with the police and this is another example of this paying off.

“After the police had let the children’s centre know, our fraud team were able investigate Joseph-Thomas and provide the police with the evidence they needed for a successful prosecution.

"The judge has sent out a clear message with this sentence that this sort of stealing will not be tolerated.”

Keep up to date with the latest news in west London via the free getwestlondon app.

You can even set it to receive push notifications for all the breaking news in your area.

Available to download from the App Store or Google Play for Android now!