Woman who stole £189k from her employer is jailed

A woman who shopped at Harrods and Selfridges and went on long-haul holidays after stealing £189,000 from her employer has been jailed.

Finance manager Anita Mirmohammadi also spent money at Mercedes-Benz and had dental work done at a Harley Street clinic in London, police said.

She was arrested at London Gatwick Airport after returning from Dubai in May 2022, a trip paid for by cash taken from her employer in Brentwood, Essex.

The 31-year-old, of no fixed address, was found guilty of fraud by false representation at Basildon Crown Court and jailed for five years and 10 months.

An investigation found Mirmohammadi siphoned £189,675 from her company via its credit card and fraudulent invoices between 2018 and 2022.

Her offending was uncovered when "a pattern of unexplained transactions" was discovered in the firm's accounts, Essex Police said.

Jurors found her guilty after a seven-day trial in March.

It heard she had also bought from Apple, Amazon, Uber, eBay, Zara and Thames Water using company money.

"This was a calculated, ongoing fraud that would have continued had she not been caught," Det Con Karen Venables said.

"It was clear from the deception we found in these accounts that Mirmohammadi knew what she was doing was wrong and was trying to cover her tracks."

Financial investigators have been working to identify the sum of her offences so they can recover the money via the Proceeds of Crime Act.

A confiscation hearing has been scheduled for the week commencing 3 November.

Follow Essex news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.