An online gambling addict who works as a bookkeeper swindled her employers out of almost £1 million, costing one of her bosses to lose his retirement fund, has now been put behind bars.
Caroline Dumont, age 57, formerly of Swanscombe in Kent, England, worked as a bookkeeper for three separate companies based in Longfield and Aylesford, she consistently stole money from them between February 2012 and November 2014.
Police officers discovered that she was spending up to an astounding amount of £3,000 per day just to fuel her online gambling addiction. One of the companies that she worked for shortly went into liquidation with excessive financial expenses, while a director of another company she worked for lost the money that he had intended to retire on.
The court heard that Dumont had been working for one of the companies for nine years when the director began to question why the business did not seem to be in a better financial standing even though there was a period of significant growth.
The bookkeeper's work was audited when she was away on holiday in November 2014, when it was revealed that she had made around 312 fraudulent transactions that altogether reached an amount of over £713,000.
Dumont was instantly fired, and other companies who were known to have hired her were also notified and advised to check and audit their accounts.
Dumont had been a trusted friend of one of the companies' directors for more than twenty years and she had been working for them for about eight years.
They discovered that between April 2013 and November 2014, Dumont had paid herself a sum of £35,006 of which only £1,900 had been earned legally.
She also had stolen an estimated £190,000 from a third company that soon after went into liquidation.
She admitted at Maidstone Crown Court to three counts of fraud by abuse of position and was sentenced to three years and four months in jail.
After the sentencing, investigators said, "It soon became clear that Caroline Dumont's spending on gambling was extreme as her bank records showed daily transactions that were typically between £2,000 and £3,000. Her dishonest actions have had a huge impact on those who placed a huge amount of trust in her by giving her access to their financial accounts. She betrayed those who viewed her as both a competent colleague and friend, and her addiction to gambling is no excuse for the vast amount of money she stole."
source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3359438/Accountant-swindled-700-000-employers-fund-3-000-DAY-gambling-habit.html
