Grandmother who stole £70,000 from school jailed

A grandmother who took more than £70,000 from the school she worked at has been jailed.

Nottingham Crown Court heard Wendy Gill took the money from Bramcote Church of England Primary School in Bramcote, Nottinghamshire, over a period of six years to help fund her partner’s drug habit.

The 61-year-old, of Stanton Road, Ilkeston, Derbyshire, previously pleaded guilty to one count of fraud by abuse of position.

On Tuesday she was sentenced to two years and one month in prison.

The court heard Gill had been working at the school since 2006, starting as an office manager before becoming business manager.

Anthony Cheung, prosecuting, said she was responsible for staff payroll and procuring equipment, but at a meeting of governors in June 2022, a deficit in the school’s accounts was found.

A financial investigation was launched, during which Gill admitted taking the money.

“It was discovered that Mrs Gill used the school’s bank account as if it was her own,” Mr Cheung said.

“As a result of [her] deceit, children at the school suffered.”

The court heard between April 2016 and June 2022, Gill took a total of £70,581.51 from funding that had been provided for the school from the Department for Education.

In a victim impact statement read out in court, Sarah Meredith, head teacher at Bramcote, spoke of the “significant impact” on everyone connected to the school.

She said she had to consider making redundancies among staff to compensate for the deficit, with pupils affected by budget cuts that saw vital equipment limited and computers not updated.

Describing Gill as “a friend, colleague and confidante” before her fraud was discovered, she said she felt “totally deceived and betrayed” by her actions, which had caused personal stress and detracted from day-to-day school management.

“I cannot stress enough the detrimental impact that this has had,” she said.

“The children over a number of years have missed out, and have suffered from being unable to access essential resources.”

Defending Gill, Luc Chignell said she had “felt under pressure to provide finances to her partner and his son to fund their ongoing drug misuse”.

He said she felt “utterly ashamed” of affecting the community she was part of, and had “tainted” all the good work she had carried out at the school.

“There really are no winners in this case,” he said.

Sentencing Gill, Judge James Bide-Thomas said Gill’s offending was “made worse by the fact that people all thought of you as a friend”, adding Ms Meredith in particular had suffered “considerable distress, anxiety [and] sleepless nights” in dealing with her actions.

He said the school had to fundraise for basics such as textbooks and could not update computers due to her control of the finances, with the effect on special educational needs pupils “particularly marked”.

“Every penny that the school saved that wasn’t spent on the children allowed you to steal more,” he said.

“There was clearly a high impact on both the head teacher and also a high impact on the ability of the school to provide appropriate facilities.”

While acknowledging Gill was in a relationship with an “abusive” partner, Judge Bide-Thomas said the effect on the community meant “appropriate punishment can only be achieved with immediate imprisonment”.

Following sentencing, the Diocese of Southwell and Nottingham released a statement on behalf of the school.

“[We] are relieved this very challenging time is now over,” the statement said.

“This has been a deeply painful time for the members of the school, but they are recovering well.”