A 28 year old UK woman was sentenced to a year in jail this week for stealing from the parish she worked at in order to feed her online gambling habit.
Joanne Sharp was given the sentence by the Peterborough Crown Court after she admitted to frauding the company out of £65,000. To date she has only paid back £9,000.
The crimes occurred in 2009 when Sharp was working as a clerk at the church, and she forged checks to receive money to gamble online. Sharp was caught when the parish council's bank sent an inquiry related to a check she signed.
Laying down the sentence Recorder Angela Rafferty said, “This offense is so serious only an immediate custodial sentence can be justified.”