Provident Personal Credit Ltd v Emma Beech – Employee Theft – Private Prosecution

A team of prosecutors led by Tamlyn Edmonds brought a successful prosecution against Ms Emma Beech for a number of fraud and theft offences committed against her employer, Provident Personal Credit Limited.

Over a 6 month period, Ms Beech acting in her capacity as a loans agent for Provident abused her position of trust by taking out a number of loans using the details of her existing customers without their knowledge or consent.  She also stole monies that she claimed to be holding as part of her “handyfloat”.

Ms Beech was charged with ten counts of fraud by false representation and one count of fraud by abuse of position, contrary to section 1 of the Fraud Act 2006, as well as two counts of theft contrary to section 1 of the Theft Act 1968.

Ms Beech was sentenced to 8 weeks’ imprisonment suspended for 12 months, with 140 hours of unpaid work, as well as being subject to a supervision requirement and attendance for 16 sessions on a specified programme. She was also ordered to pay the full amount of £10,540 in compensation.