County council employee from Warwick 'doubled salary' with fraudulent overtime claims

A Warwickshire County Council employee doubled her salary for more than two years by submitting bogus overtime claim forms '“ even going in when she was off sick to fill them out.
Samantha OwenSamantha Owen
Samantha Owen

But despite stealing almost £50,000 from the council, dishonest Samantha Owen escaped an immediate jail term after she pleaded guilty at Warwick Crown Court to a charge of fraud.

Owen (43) of Guys Cliffe Terrace, Warwick, was given a two-year sentence suspended for two years, with a rehabilitation activity, and was ordered to do 200 hours of unpaid work.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

She had entered her plea on the basis that she had stolen around £30,000 – but on the day of a ‘trial of issue’ on that aspect, she accepted the true figure was actually £49,199.

Prosecutor Oliver Weetch said Owen had been a sessional worker with Warwickshire County Council’s social services since 2004, and became the sessional workers’ co-ordinator in 2010.

In July last year a new payment system was about to be put into place, and an audit was carried out which revealed a number of discrepancies.

A number of members of staff were spoken to, and overtime claim forms Owen had submitted dating back to March 2015 were checked after one was found to have a fraudulent signature on it.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

In addition to legitimate overtime claims, she had been submitted regular false claims between March 2015 and July last year for a total of £49,199.

And Judge Andrew Lockhart QC observed: “She essentially doubled her salary.”

Mr Weetch pointed out: “It was only by virtue of the new system that it was discovered, otherwise it would have continued.

“The investigation led to her being interviewed, and she made admissions then and during the course of her interview with the police.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“She accepted that money was tight in relation to the county council, given the cuts to services across the board.”

Mr Weetch said Owen had often worked at weekends, turning down offers by other people to do some of the work, to enable her to keep her frauds hidden, even going in when she was officially off sick to submit false claims.

The judge commented: “It was an abuse of a position of trust, a sophisticated nature and over a prolonged period. £40,000 is not a high percentage in the vast budget of the county council, but that is £40,000 taken from the care of children.”

Makhan Shoker, defending, said there was never any doubt so far as Owen was concerned that she was guilty, and the only issue had been the extend of the fraud because she could not remember when she had started submitting false claims.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

At first she had been presented with claims going back to January 2016, on which her £30,000 basis of plea had been based, ‘and then today we were shown ones going back to March 2015.’

He said that long before the frauds started, Owen had been working long hours of overtime.

“She was the sessional workers’ co-ordinator and had to co-ordinate their time sheets and authorise payments, and that’s why she went in at a weekend when she was off sick,” he claimed.

Mr Shoker said Owen was suffering from depression and having problems at work, and ‘she was doing things to alleviate her troubles which she should have realised would only get her into more trouble,’ spending the money on shopping.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

He added that as a result of that Owen, who has not told her husband precisely why she had got the sack, has lost her good character and any prospect of obtaining a decent job.

Sentencing Owen, Judge Lockhart told her: “You were a woman of good character, respected in the community and working in an area where dedication is needed, and you were trusted.

“Warwickshire County Council has a definitive budget. It is one paid for by society, by council tax payers.

“That budget has as a hugely important part of it the care of children and the vulnerable, and working with those vulnerable people are social workers and sessional workers.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“The budget was constantly under pressure, and there would be a small amount shaved off budgets every year, making it more difficult for services to be delivered.

“Against that backdrop, what did you do? For your own reasons you became depressed, and I accept there may have been a difficult work environment, but there are ways round that.

“It is not a proper way round it to start to overspend and to pay yourself double your wage, that money being taken directly from a budget which could and should be applied to social workers to carry out visits to protect the vulnerable.

“One of the most serious aspects is that you were signing the forms off in the names of other people who would then have to be interviewed about those matters.”

Reserving any breaches of the suspended sentence to himself, the judge told Owen: “You should understand how close you have come to going to custody today.”