Mum steals £140k from estate agent job by making fake landlord bank accounts

A woman stole almost £140,000 from her estate agent job by transferring funds to a number of fake landlord accounts she managed.

Wendy Dare transferred money to accounts set up in the names of herself, her husband and her daughter while working at Chester agents

Chester Crown Court heard how 57-year-old from Southport Road in Omskirk, worked at the unnamed estate agents between May 2015 and December 2020.

As part of Dare's role as a manager, she had access to the company's accounts.

In June 2021, the agent were notified of a problem where a payment of around £23,000 for one of their landlord clients could not be found.

An internal investigation was carried out into the disappearance of the money. It was discovered that Dare accessed company accounts to transfer funds to her own accounts on numerous occasions.

Cheshire Police launched an investigation into the incident and began to build the evidence provided to them by the estate agents.

Detectives Andy Manson and Georgia Hughes found four accounts in Dare's name and five in her husband's had been set up.

37 transactions that amounted to more than £47,000 had been paid into accounts that belonged to fake landlords - accounts all set up by Dare.The total loss as a result of the fraudulent transactions totalled £138,741, but Dare had paid back around £32,500 of the money to the letting agent between February 2016 and November 2020.

Dare was charged with three counts of fraud by abuse of power. She was jailed for 28 months in March 2023.However Financial investigator Jane Carruthers, of Cheshire Constabulary's Economic Crime Unit, reviewed Dare's financial case and brought about a return to court for the mum.

Dare returned to court on 12 June and was ordered to repay nearly £123,000 to her former employer.

She has three months to pay the order or she will face an extended sentence, while still being liable to pay the order.Ms Carruthers said: "Wendy Dare's confiscation order sends a strong message that Cheshire Police takes the recovery of the proceeds of crime and loss to victims very seriously.

"It highlights the importance of asset recovery considerations running throughout an investigation, to maximise the opportunities to recover significant sums derived from criminality in an effort to compensate victims of crime."