Rachel Carter stole £20k from Rochdale Council

Rachel Carter, 32, of Palatine Drive, Bury stole over £20,000 from petty cash that belonged to Rochdale Borough Council.

Carter pleaded guilty at Minshull Street Crown Court on 8 July 2013 to abusing her position of trust and stealing petty cash to the value of £23,082 over the course of several months. She was sentenced to one year in prison, suspended for 12 months, and ordered to complete 200 hours of unpaid work. She will also be subjected to a curfew between the hours of 8pm and 6am for three months, which will be monitored by a tag.

Carter held the position of Clerical Administrator at Rochdale Borough Council and had worked for the organisation for over three years before her dismissal in October 2012. Suspicions arose when receipts were found by her manager containing fraudulent signatures in his name. An internal audit investigation uncovered that Carter, who was responsible for administering petty cash for the homelessness and asylum teams, had been compiling and submitting claim forms, collecting the cheques from the financial processing team and cashing them at the Post Office.

Councillor Farooq Ahmed, cabinet member for finance, at Rochdale Borough Council, said: “This truly is a disappointing situation. We employ our staff into positions of trust and to be betrayed is terribly disheartening. What’s worse is that Ms Carter effectively stole taxpayer’s money to further her own financial gain. This is simply not acceptable."