Charity treasurer gambled away thousands of hospice donations

A fraudster stole three years’ worth of fundraising money from a hospice charity while serving as its treasurer.

Julie Scotney funnelled thousands of pounds of charity donations into her own account before spending it on gambling websites.

The 64-year-old repeatedly pocketed cash intended for the Edwinstowe Hospice Support Group, while telling lie after lie to her colleagues.

Nearly £6,500 went missing under Scotney’s watch – money that had been raised to support the John Eastwood Hospice in Sutton-in-Ashfield.

Most of the funds came from the charity’s coffee mornings, organised four times a year, to help the hospice provide care for people with life-limiting conditions.

Bearing this in mind, the total figure stolen by Scotney represented three years’ worth of support from the group’s supporters and donors.

The frauds took place between February 2020 and January 2022, with the discrepancies initially going undiscovered, due to the treasurer’s deception.

Unbeknownst to other charity board members, funds weren’t making their way into the group’s bank account but were instead funding Scotney’s gambling.

She even created a fake bank statement to try and cover her tracks which appeared to show the correct cash balance making its way to the right destination.

When charity members started to suspect something was wrong and tried to chase Scotney up for the money, she ignored their emails, phone calls and home visits.

Scotney eventually owned up to investing the money through her business account but promised that she would transfer the missing funds back within two weeks.

When this didn’t happen, Scotney delayed further before contacting the charity chair on 24 December 2021 to say the money had been sent and to wish them “a peaceful Christmas”.

This was another lie, with the police being contacted soon afterwards when the fraudster once again tried to ignore her colleagues’ attempts to contact her.

When an investigation was launched into Scotney, her phone was seized and officers found examples of her accessing more than ten different gambling sites on a significant number of occasions.

After pleading guilty to charges of fraud by abuse of position and false accounting, she appeared at Nottingham Crown Court to be sentenced on Tuesday (12 November).

Recorder Balraj Bhatia KC said:

“It is quite right to describe this as an abuse of trust. This money belonged to this very worthy charity, not to you, but you simply gambled it away.

“To make matters worse, when things were discovered, you told lie after lie, showing no respect for anyone involved with the charity, who were trying to make sure the money collected went to the hospice.  

“Even on Christmas Eve, you sent messages wishing everyone a peaceful Christmas and that the transfer from the savings account, which didn’t exist, had gone to the proper account. You then went to sleep on that lie.

“This was a sustained period of dishonesty, which may not have been sophisticated but was certainly determined, as shown by the false accounting charge.”

Scotney, of Maythorn Grove, Edwinstowe, was sentenced to 12 months in prison, suspended for two years.

As part of the conditions of her sentence, she must complete 15 rehabilitation activity requirement days.

Detective Sergeant Marc Lancaster, of Nottinghamshire Police, said:

“Julie Scotney was entrusted to help ensure the money donated to this charity made its way to its intended target, but instead chose to abuse her position.

“She repeatedly diverted these much-needed funds away from the charity and into her own pockets instead, where it was then spent on gambling websites.

“This deception took place over the space of nearly two years, with Scotney even creating a fake bank statement to try and cover her tracks, before continuing to lie when her ruse was discovered.

“She will have appreciated how much pain her actions would cause but she chose to do it anyway."