Mum stole £30k as Clarks employee at Warrington shoe shops

Lesa Carter swiped more than £17,000 in cash from tills at Clarks shoe stores in Stockton Heath and Warrington town centre, as well as helping herself to money in excess of £12,000 through bogus refunds, over a four-year period.

Such was the significant impact of her offending that one of the stores came ‘very close to closing’, while the franchisee was forced to delay his retirement.

The 48-year-old appeared at Chester Crown Court for sentence on Wednesday after pleading guilty to two charges of theft by an employee and one of fraud by abuse of position.

The hearing was adjourned from last month to allow defendant to undergo scans for a medical concern, and while Carter’s defence asked for a further delay due to her undergoing a hip operation over the weekend, this was turned down.

Summing up the facts of the case, judge Michael Leeming explained how the Stockton Heath and Warrington branches which employed the defendant were run as franchises by R. Roberts and Son – a family business that has been in operation for seven generations.

Carter first joined the company in June 2011 and was initially employed in the Widnes outlet, before working her way up to the position of assistant manager at Stockton Heath.

In late 2019, Carter began a trial period as a manager at the Golden Square Shopping Centre store, but in the November a colleague discovered a discrepancy where a refund had been authorised but no shoes had been returned.

The Clarks branch in Stockton Heath (Image: Google Maps)

After an audit, it was discovered that 165 cash returns had been completed by the defendant, but the information did not match that on the computer system – postcodes used either did not exist or did not match the street names.

An audit was then carried out at the Stockton Heath branch which revealed the extent of the defendant’s fraudulent activity using this method, having stolen £12,378 since October 2015.

The audit also discovered that she had brazenly swiped £17,843.50 from cash registers, taking her total gain to £30,221.50.

On November 28, 2019, the franchisees spoke to the defendant about the suspected fraud, having only discovered five months’ worth of offending, to which she initially replied: “What are you accusing me of? I’ve done nothing wrong.”

When interviewed by police, Carter confessed to taking monies and claimed she had been ‘up to her eyeballs in debt’.

In a statement, managing director of the franchise John Taylor said the impact on the business had been significant.

He said he had been running the business since he was 21, and although he had dealt with stealing and small-scale fraud before, he had ‘never encountered anything to this extent’.

Mr Taylor explained he had ‘come very close to having to close down the Stockton Heath branch because profits were so low’ as a direct result of her actions.

Chester Crown Court

He also described the impact on himself as ‘significant’, as he had postponed his retirement and had been placed under ‘huge’ stress and anxiety.

Judge Leeming referenced submissions made by Sarah Griffin, defending, at an earlier hearing, including her client’s lack of any previous convictions and her pre-sentence report, which assessed her as posing a ‘low risk of reconviction or of causing serious harm’.

She invited the court to consider suspending the sentence ‘as an act of mercy’ due to her client’s health conditions, adding that immediate custody would have a ‘significant impact’ on others, particularly Carter’s disabled daughter to whom she is the primary carer for.

Before sentencing, judge Leeming said: “This was persistence in dishonest behaviour. You were confronted about your wrongdoing and yet you continued to deny what was going on.

“I am perfectly satisfied that had you not been confronted, you would have continued stealing in the way you had done for the previous four years.”

He described her actions as an abuse of a position of trust through fraudulent activity over a sustained period of time, which had a considerable detrimental effect.

“These offences in my judgement are sufficiently serious to cross the custody threshold, and in my judgement adequate punishment can only be achieved with immediate custody,” he added.

Carter, of Handley Drive in Padgate, was jailed for 18 months.

The case is set to appear back before the court later this year for a Proceeds of Crime Act hearing, which will decide whether she will pay back any of the money stolen.