A mum stole nearly £140,000 from her estate agent job by transferring funds to a number of fake landlord accounts that she managed.
Wendy Dare, 57, abused her position at a Chester letting agents by moving approximately £138,000 worth of company funds to bank accounts set up in the names of herself, her husband and their daughter. Chester Crown Court heard Dare, of Southport Road, Ormskirk, worked at the unnamed estate agents between May 2015 and December 2020.
As part of her role as a lettings manager she had access to the company's accounts. In June of 2021, the estate agents were informed of an issue in which a payment of around £23,000 designated to one of their landlord clients could not be accounted for.
READ MORE: Man clutches broken leg after horrific Mathew Street bar brawl
An internal investigation into the disappearance of the money was launched, with it being discovered Dare had been repeatedly accessing the company accounts to transfer money to her own accounts. An investigation was then launched by Cheshire Constabulary detectives who built upon the evidence given to them by the letting agents.
Detectives Andy Manson and Georgia Hughes found four accounts in Dare's name and five in her husband's had been set up. Thirty-seven transactions that exceeded £47,000 had been paid into accounts that belonged to fake landlords - accounts all set up by Dare herself.
The total loss as a result of the fraudulent transactions totalled £138,741, but Dare had paid back around £32,500 of the money to the letting agent between February 2016 and November 2020. As a result of the investigation into her dodgy finances, Dare was charged with three counts of fraud by abuse of power. She was jailed for 28 months in March this year.
But unfortunately for Dare, her sentencing wasn't the end of her trouble with the law. Financial investigator Jane Carruthers, of Cheshire Constabulary's Economic Crime Unit, reviewed Dare's financial case and brought about a return to court for the mum.
Dare returned to court on June 12 and was ordered to repay nearly £123,000 to her former employer. She has three months to pay the order or she will face a further custodial sentence, while still being liable to pay the order.
Ms Carruthers said: "Wendy Dare's confiscation order sends a strong message that Cheshire Police takes the recovery of the proceeds of crime and loss to victims very seriously. It highlights the importance of asset recovery considerations running throughout an investigation, to maximise the opportunities to recover significant sums derived from criminality in an effort to compensate victims of crime."
Get the latest crime reports and investigations from Merseyside by signing up to our newsletter.
