A WOMAN living in Southampton avoided jail after admitting defrauding a Gwent company of more than £20,000.

Cherie Webber, 57, of Logan Close, Southampton, appeared before Cardiff Crown Court on Friday, October 14, to be sentenced on two fraud charges.

Webber admitted both the charge of fraud by abuse of trust and the charge of making false instruments to use in fraud on August 19.

The court heard how in 2019, Webber was working for Raglan-based Kraven Enterprises Ltd as a finance assistant and, between March 10, 2019, and June of that year, defrauded the company of £23,533.51.

The court heard how Webber did this by creating fake companies named B Plant and GeoTech, and used real company names, including Beaver Plant, to create invoices, with the money being sent to her own bank account.

The company owner, Mr Wright, noticed what was happening and Webber admitted to it all in an email, saying she had a gambling addiction and was using the money to pay off her debts.

Mr Wright didn't go to the police initially as Webber entered into an unofficial payment plan to repay the money and was paying it back. However, he contacted police in October 2020 after Webber told him she had lost her new job due to the covid pandemic and wouldn't be able to make payments.

Webber was interviewed in August 2021 and admitted the crimes. 

Defending Webber, Tom Stanway said that his client had a gambling addiction but sought help at a centre in Abergavenny and had not gambled since September 2019.

He also told the court how she had moved away and was working at a new company - who she hadn't told about the case as she was afraid she would lose the job and wouldn't be able to make the repayments - and was paying back the money at £500 a month and currently had paid back £16,000.

He said how the situation had affected her relationship with her family and she was genuinely remorseful.

Sentencing, Judge Recorder Andrew Hammond, told Webber that she was lucky there had been such a long time between the offences and the court appearance as he could see she was paying back the money and had been sorting her life out.

After explaining how it was her second fraud conviction after a suspended sentence in 2017, he told her: "If there had not been delayed, you would have been going to prison."

He sentenced her to 12 months in prison for the fraud offence and six months in prison for the false instruments offence. Both were to run concurrently and suspended for 24 months.

She also has to carry out 180 hours of unpaid work and pay back the remaining amount of money, pay a victim surcharge and carry out a rehabilitation activity requirement.