A single mother who went on a huge shopping spree after
discovering £52,000 had mistakenly been put into her bank account has been
ordered to pay it back - or face prison.
Michaela Hutchings, 23, spent £9,000 on designer shoes,
handbags and sunglasses in a two-day spending splurge after finding the
transfer from her local council.
She also gave her mother £1,000 in cash and put £40,000
into a savings account, before she was caught by police on April 24 last year.
A judge spared her prison when she admitted dishonesty
and retaining a wrongly-credited bank transfer when she appeared at Stafford
Crown Court.
However, she now has six months to repay the money or
serve 20 months in prison.
She was also given a 12-month community order and ordered
to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work.
A confiscation hearing at Stafford Crown Court on Tuesday
ordered her to repay £52,465.21 - the £51,821.34 bank transfer plus £643.87
interest.
Most of the money has been recovered but Hutchings still
owes a total of £5,733.77 from the designer clothes and interest which was
accrued.
If she fails to repay the money by Christmas Eve she will
be jailed for one year and eight months.
A police spokesman said: 'The clothing and accessories
will now be sold at auction in order to help pay the Confiscation Order.
No comments:
Post a Comment