Jail for accountant who conned firm out of £40,000 - and spent it on French Alps skiiing holiday
A chartered accountant who defrauded her employer out of more than £40,000 before spending it all on a holiday to the French Alps has been jailed, police have said.
Kirsty Payne, 44, from Ramsey, worked at Marshall Thermo King, trading as Marshall Fleet Solutions, based in Cambridge.
Cambridgeshire Police said that in February 2025, she ran a payment of £400,410 through the system from various suppliers, but the payment was £40,383 more than it should have been. Checks revealed the extra funds in question had been paid into an account of one of Payne’s family members.
Initial claim that the money was for a family member’s medical treatment – before admitting it was spent on skiing holiday
Police said the financial discrepancy wasn’t spotted until a few months later, in April, when Payne got signed off work with a doctor’s note citing her declining mental health. The note was dated from 30 March.
A spokesperson for Cambridgeshire Police said that Payne had a wellbeing check with the company’s head of HR, where she immediately apologised and out of the blue admitted taking the money fraudulently from the business. In the same meeting, she resigned. She said there was no money left in the account it had been transferred to, and initially claimed the cash was for a family member’s medical treatment.
However, in police interview she revealed the money had in fact been spent on a skiing holiday to the French Alps.
Police told of previous fraud conviction
Police said Payne told officers the decision to take the money was “spur of the moment” but confirmed she had a previous conviction for fraud by false representation. Payne said she was having money troubles due to this, despite earning about £80,000 a year.
Payne confided to officers that she had been struggling with her mental health, which had been exacerbated by a family member’s terminal illness. She couldn’t explain why she had taken the money.
She pleaded guilty to one count of fraud by false representation at a hearing at Cambridge Magistrates’ Court in July.
Payne, of Taverners Drive, Ramsey, near Huntingdon, was jailed for one year and six months at Peterborough Crown Court on Thursday (10 September).
Payne received ten months in prison for the fraud offence, but in committing the fraud, she had also breached a suspended sentence relating to a previous crime of the same nature.
“I hope her time behind bars allows her to reflect on her actions”
DC Valentin Radulescu, who investigated, said: “Payne gave little thought to the impact of defrauding her employer out of tens of thousands of pounds.
“By committing fraud for a second time she showed she had not learned her lesson, and this was looked on negatively by the courts, who imposed a custodial sentence which she had initially avoided.
“I hope her time behind bars allows her to reflect on her actions and hopefully, this case also serves as a warning to anyone else hoping to turn a profit through deception.”