Hedge fund employee, 53, is jailed for four-and-a-half years after stealing £2.7 MILLION from her bosses and blowing it on luxury cars, foreign holidays and a £1m Spanish villa
A hedge fund employee who stole £2.7million from her bosses and blew the cash on high-end cars, health supplements and a villa in Spain was today jailed for four and a half years.
Susan Anderson, 53, carried out the ‘sophisticated’ scam’ for nearly 10 years while working as an office manager at Doughty Hanson & Co Managers Ltd, based in Pall Mall, central London.
Fitness fanatic Anderson fraudulently used a company credit card to fund her own lavish lifestyle, stole £100,000 of petty cash and falsified her salary details to get an £800,000 mortgage.
At Southwark Crown Court, Anderson admitted defrauding her former employers in a private prosecution brought by Mishcon de Reya solicitors.
Chris Coltart QC, prosecuting, said: ‘This case is concerned with a widespread, extensive fraud by her against that company between 2009 and 2018.
‘The money was spent on a variety of high value luxury items including a villa in Spain, high end vehicles and luxury goods as well as meals and such, fitness supplements, gym memberships and such.’
Anderson had been employed by the company since it was founded in the 1990s.
‘It was that longevity of service and the trusted position that was the key in her ability to commit the offences for which she stands to be sentenced,’ said Mr Coltart.
The fraud was operated through a foreign currency agency that the hedge fund company worked with called Statesman.
Anderson ordered large sums of foreign currency and falsify the documents which went to accounts to show it had been spent in legitimate company expenses.
She used the company credit card to buy luxury goods for herself and make it look like it was for legitimate business purposes or even company founders’ personal expenses.
Anderson also nearly stole nearly £100,000 from the petty cash pot.
Ben Summers, defending, said Anderson had been suffering from long term underlying personality disorder.
‘Clearly anybody who has admitted criminal conduct is to bear the consequences of it,' he said. ‘This is a slightly unusual case. It is a private prosecution that followed the day after a settlement had been reached previously.
‘Not only has she lost her job and her financial future is precarious to say the least, on top of that her former employers have brought this to court for her to be sent to prison.’
Mr Summers told the court that when she first joined the company in 1993, it was a very difficult environment to work in because of the 'male-dominated and financially driven' atmosphere.
'She perceived she was effectively bullied in the workplace,’ he claimed.
Anderson, who lives in a £1.3m five bed home in Horsham, West Sussex, admitted three counts of fraud by abuse of position in respect of the scam against her employers between January 2009 and June 2018.
She also admitted one count of fraud by false representation in respect of the mortgage fraud on 20 August 2018.
Anderson was jailed for four and a half years.
