The secretary of a Bermondsey tenants’ association has been given a sixteen week suspended jail term after she defrauded the estate out of £1,650.
Suzanne Webb, 52, admitted the charge of fraud by abuse of position when she appeared at Camberwell Green Magistrates’ Court on January 28.
The offence was said to have taken place between April 1 and December 31 last year at the Astley and Cooper Road Tenants’ and Residents’ Association.
According to the charge she “committed fraud in that, while occupying a position, namely secretary of the Astley and Cooper Road Tenants’ and Residents Association , in which you were expected to safeguard, or not to act against, the financial interests of that association, you dishonestly abused that position intending thereby to make a gain, namely monetary gain of £1650.”
Webb, of Rowcross Street in Bermondsey, was given a sixteen week jail term, but this was suspended for twelve months. She was also ordered to attend eighteen sessions of a ‘women’s programme’ with the probation service, which is a cognitive and motivational programme specifically designed for women who have committed acquisitive offences and are at risk of reconviction for non-violent crimes.
The programme looks at the way women understand and deal with problems in their lives, and looks at alternative ways of dealing with them.