These criminals breached the trust of the people they worked for and found themselves in court for their shameful actions.
A string of offenders from the North East have faced judges for fraud or theft crimes committed while they were at work.
One case involved a former British Airways worker who was jailed for a £365,000 flight delays compensation fraud.
Go here for the latest reports and live updates from North East courts
Another involved two criminals who stole thousands of pounds in their role as solicitors.
And a bank worker helped herself to £1.3m in a shocking abuse of trust.
Here we look at some of the offenders who appeared in the dock after their fraudulent activities were discovered.
Anthony Robertson
A former British Airways worker was jailed for a £365,000 flight delays compensation fraud.
Anthony Robertson abused his position as a call centre manager to siphon off large sums from his employer.
A court heard he diverted some of the money to two bank accounts of his own and the rest to 41 other accounts.
The scam first came to light in 2016 but due to what Robertson's barrister called "unconscionable delays", the case has only just been brought to a conclusion.
Newcastle Crown Court heard £86,984 was transferred to Robertson's own bank accounts. £197,150 was paid to third party accounts, of which £169,945.68 was subsequently transferred to Robertson and £81,653 was paid to third parties with no evidence it was forwarded to him.
Robertson was first interviewed by the police in July 2016, when he admitted that he had committed the fraudulent transactions as he had personal debt and saw an opportunity to make money.
He said he had access to the details of the passengers who had been affected and so decided to fabricate the claims.
He completed claim application forms online, pretended to be a customer and then used his own bank details to receive the compensation.
He said he would access the details of passengers who had not claimed compensation. He said he produced fraudulent paperwork, claimed to be the customer, and gave consent for the claims to be paid for the delayed flight, on their behalf.
He accessed the relevant system and made the refund payment to his own bank account. Thereafter, he input fictitious bank account details for the claim to conceal the fact the funds had been paid to his own bank account.
In total, Robertson was involved with 117 fraudulent transactions.
Robertson, 41, of Grassholm Place, Longbenton, North Tyneside, admitted fraud and was jailed for 32 months. Here's the full story.
Karl Ellison
A council supervisor who stole almost £100,000 of equipment to bankroll his cocaine addiction was ordered to pay back his ill-gotten gains.
Karl Ellison worked for Newcastle City Council for more than 25 years and was a highly trusted store warehouse boss with access to the local authority's funds.
As ChronicleLive reported previously, in a shocking abuse of his position, he ordered high value items from suppliers, collected them himself then sold them on and pocketed the proceeds.
Last September, Ellison, 53, of Ilfracombe Gardens, Whitley Bay, was locked up for 27 months at Newcastle Crown Court for fraud between January 2020 and March this year.
Now he has been ordered to pay back the money he fraudulently obtained after prosecutors pursued him under the Proceeds of Crime Act.
In the latest hearing, at which he was not present, it was revealed he benefited to the tune of £98,940. He must pay back the full amount as his available assets are £117,163.
The court heard the money is already in the possession of prosecutors. Here's the full court report.
Christopher Paterson
A mobile phone sales adviser who fraudulently had £20,000 of devices sent out for free was spared jail.
Christopher Paterson abused his position of trust while working for EE.
Newcastle Crown Court heard he worked for the firm's upgrade and retention team when he misused the system to have phones and accessories sent out to people and addresses associated with him without paying for them.
Ellen Wright, prosecuting, said suspicions were raised in October 2019 when his manager noticed a charge had not been applied to an order.
Miss Wright said: "The manager looked at the account to understand why this had come about, why the accounts weren't adding up.
"The manager found the customer who received the product had the same surname as the defendant and lived locally."
An investigation was launched which revealed the wider fraud and Paterson resigned.
Miss Wright said: "He used the authority he had to order phones and other devices and sent them to people without charging them for them."
The retail value of the items he sent out was £20,589, the court heard.
Paterson, 33, of Branton North, Brunton Drive, Newcastle, pleaded guilty to fraud and was sentenced to 15 months suspended for two years with 200 hours unpaid work. Read the full story here.
Leanne Bramwell
A company boss who fleeced an 89-year-old retired doctor out of more than £50,000 was ordered to pay back just £1 of her ill-gotten gains.
Leanne Bramwell abused her position of trust at a property management firm and betrayed the former consultant orthopaedic surgeon by failing to send him money owed on his rental properties.
As previously reported by ChronicleLive, when his daughter noticed what was going on and pursued Bramwell for answers, she maliciously reported her to the police for harassment and the daughter ended up being cautioned despite doing nothing wrong.
When Bramwell was sentenced last September, a judge said only the fact the 40-year-old is a single mother who cares for her poorly mother and stepdad saved her from the prison sentence she "deserves".
Prosecutors had sought to claw back the money she made under the Proceeds of Crime Act but in a new hearing, Newcastle Crown Court was told she has no "available assets".
As a result, despite benefiting to the tune of £57,700.54, she must pay back just a nominal £1, unless she comes into money in the future.
The retired doctor owns ten rental properties in the North East and Bramwell's firm, Libra Properties, were trusted to help with their management.
But after the death of the doctor's wife, who was his practice manager and helped to maintain his affairs, Bramwell began withholding payments due to him.
Between 2013 and 2015, she dishonestly defrauded him out of a total of £53,689.
Matters came to light when the doctor's daughter noticed some invoices were missing and further checks revealed tens of thousands of pounds were missing.
Bramwell, 40, of Penrith Gardens, Gateshead, pleaded guilty to fraud and was sentenced to two years suspended for two years and must do 150 hours of unpaid work. Here's the full story.
Ayaz Siddique and Deepankar Dixit
Two criminals who stole thousands of pounds in their role as solicitors were ordered to pay back more than £200,000.
Ayaz Siddique, 49, and Deepankar Dixit, 39, previously worked at a solicitor's office in Newcastle where the pair used a range of deceptive and co-ordinated tactics to fraudulently steal thousands of pounds by funnelling money into a cash account they kept outside the business where Siddique was a director.
The investigation led to the arrest and subsequent conviction of both Siddique, of Milvain Avenue, Fenham, Newcastle, and Dixit, of Springhill Gardens, Newcastle, in December 2019.
However, officers from the North East Regional Economic Crime Unit (RECU) weren’t satisfied that the full extent of justice had been served.
While they were serving jail time for false accounting, officers from RECU were pulling together a case under the Proceeds of Crime Act.
This looked at their financial activity prior to the offending, assessed the value of their assets and calculated what value each of them had illegally obtained through their criminal activity.
Appearing at Leeds Crown Court, as part of Confiscation Orders granted by a judge, the duo were ordered to put their hands in their pockets and pay back a total of £205,000.
Det Sgt Thomas Maughan said: "Both Siddique and Dixit showed a blatant disregard for their professional obligations. Each of them acted outside the law and have now lost their status as solicitors." Read the full story here.
Marie Hylton
A carer who fleeced a vulnerable 94-year-old she was supposed to be looking after was ordered to pay back her ill-gotten gains as compensation two months after he died.
Marie Hylton was jailed last year for conning two elderly men out of thousands of pounds.
Hylton concocted a story about being attacked by loan sharks to convince the 94-year-old dementia sufferer to hand over a £6,342 to help her.
Newcastle Crown Court heard she linked the same victim's bank details to a Pay Pal account so she could use it to spent his money on herself when she wanted.
The 42-year-old mum also broke into a 93-year-old's home while he was out with another carer and helped herself to £2,000.
Hylton, of Collingwood Street, Gateshead, admitted making an article for use in fraud, making false representations and burglary and was jailed for 13 months last August.
Now she has been back in court for proceedings under the Proceeds of Crime Act in relation to the older victim.
The court heard the benefit figure was £6,342 and Hylton had £5,995, which she must pay back.
Prosecutor Michael Bunch said: "There's a request for a compensation order so the money is paid back as compensation.
"Regrettably, in the time since the offence, the victim has now died, in December last year.
"Can the compensation be made in the name of his daughter."
Hylton came under suspicion because she was one of the few people who knew the code to a key safe on the outside wall of his home. Here's the full story.
Laura Matthews
A bank worker lived the high life after helping herself to £1.3m in a shocking abuse of trust.
Laura Matthews transferred huge sums to herself and cooked the books to cover her tracks while working for Virgin PLC.
A court heard she got away with the criminal behaviour for six years and was only caught when someone standing in for her during a period of leave noticed a discrepancy.
When rumbled, she immediately held her hands up but tried to pull the wool over police's eyes by saying she had only stolen £34,000.
An audit by Virgin Money revealed the true extent of Matthews' dishonesty.
She initially said she did it to pay off payday loan companies but she had also bought a £42,000 BMW and later claimed she spent the vast majority of her ill-gotten gains on horses and equine equipment.
The prosecutor at Newcastle Crown Court said a total of £1,309,719 was stolen between May 2013 and July 2019 while she was working for the finance team.
The 32-year-old defendant, of Rosecroft, Pelton, Chester-le-Street, Durham, pleaded guilty to theft and transferring criminal property and was jailed for four years and nine months. Here's the full story.
