North East Accountant Given Four Year Jail Term For GBP1.3m Fraud

Tue, 20 Jul 2010

An accountant from Gateshead has been jailed for four years for committing fraud worth £1.3 million.

Tracey Laws, 43, funded a luxury lifestyle by writing out cheques to herself while working as a senior accountant at a BMW dealership in Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland.

The cheques were disguised in the company’s accounts as corporation tax payments, and the money was laundered through her husband’s bank account .

According to reports, Laws is reported to have used the money on a new home for her mother in Newcastle, improvements to the family home in Sunniside, Gateshead, and a camper van.

The 43-year-old accountant’s fraudulent activities, which started in 1998, were only discovered in 2008 when her employers changed the accounting system.

She admitted theft and converting criminal property at an earlier hearing, and has now been handed a four-year jail term. Former husband John Laws has been jailed for 15 months for his part in the scam.

Preston Hall BMW, in Stockton – part of the Inchcape group, which operates a number of north-east car dealerships .
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