Former Chelsea FC employee spared jail in £200,000 fraud
A former Assistant Treasury Manager at Premier League football club Chelsea FC received a suspended jail sentence at Isleworth Crown Court on 9 January this year.
Claire Walsh admitted dishonestly abusing her position to enrich herself by £208,521.65 between 8 June 2019 and 23 October 2023.
Walsh was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment, suspended for 18 months, after the Judge heard mitigating evidence that her offending was driven by a desire to help her family, who were struggling.
However, only some of the money actually went towards supporting her parents, with much of it allegedly spent on “gifts and experiences for her family and friends, trips to the theatre and holidays”.
The prosecution explained that if Chelsea season ticket holders were unable to attend a home match at Stamford Bridge, they could make tickets available on a club-run ticket exchange site for purchase by other season ticket holders and club members.
However, in her role, which included administering manual refunds, Walsh created false refunds for tickets that had never been placed on the exchange site, effectively creating refunds for tickets that did not exist.
In 2020, Chelsea became aware of an unusually high number of manual refunds on credit cards registered in Walsh’s name and reported the matter to the police.
Walsh was given the choice of facing a club disciplinary process or immediately resigning. She chose to do the latter.
Roger Isaacs, National Technical Director of NIFA, said, “Fraud by abuse of position is particularly damaging because it exploits trust. In many cases, the individual involved has legitimate access to systems and processes, which allows dishonest activity to blend in with routine transactions for long periods.
“What this case illustrates is how relatively simple controls, such as independent review of manual refunds or regular exception reporting, can help identify fraudulent activity. Patterns such as unusually high volumes of manual adjustments are often visible well before losses become significant, but they can be missed if no one is actively looking for them.
“Businesses cannot eliminate risk entirely, but by building basic checks into day-to-day processes and having independent oversight of high-risk areas by forensic accountants, they can significantly reduce both the opportunity for fraud and the damage it causes when it does occur without needing help from forensic accountants.”
Sources: BBC News
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