A woman who abused her position of trust to defraud her employer of more than £500,000 has been jailed.

Gwenda Hussey used her position to steal from an events management company.

Her nefarious actions were only discovered when her mis-use of the company taxi came to light.

The 53-year-old, from Lincoln Avenue in Twickenham, was jailed for five years at Kingston Crown Court on Friday (April 21) after she was found guilty of fraud by abuse of position.

Hussey started working at an events management company in Kingston as its bookkeeper in January 2008, before rising to became its finance manager before being promoted to its financial controller in 2013.

Within each role she had full access to all of the company’s bank accounts and she was responsible for payroll and supplier payments.

She was dismissed in November 2015 for gross misconduct when she was found to be using the company taxi account for personal usage without prior approval or authority to do so.

A new finance manager discovered that between May 11 2010 and November 20 2015 there had been £509,155.68 transferred in 720 separate transactions from the company’s expense account into Hussey’s current account.

It also showed that £23,083.21 had been transferred from the company’s current account between May 20 2010 and November 19 2015, which appeared to be unauthorised. This amount was moved across 45 transactions.

Police were notified and arrested Hussey on May 10 2016.

Inquiries, including reviewing Hussey’s bank accounts, revealed evidence Hussey had been receiving payments from the company.

Kingston Crown Court

She replied “no comment” when asked by officers to explain the transactions, before being charged on October 14.

DC Huw Jones, the investigating officer from Kingston CID, said: “Hussey has refused to take responsibility for her actions throughout, so I am pleased she has now been brought to justice.

“Hussey abused her position of trust over five years for her own personal gain.

“I would like to thank the company for bringing this matter to our attention and for greatly assisting us throughout the investigation.

“We hope this sends a strong message to those who think they can defraud their employers and get away with it. You will be caught and you will be brought to justice.”

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!