A lettings administrator stole over £16,000 during a five-year period.
Julie Feilden, 51, who worked for Smiths Gore in Newmarket, Suffolk, pleaded guilty to 13 charges of theft at South East Suffolk Magistrates Court in Ipswich.
The offences at the firm took place between March 2010 and September 2015, and involved amounts ranging from £450 to £3,012.
Savills acquired Smiths Gore and its 31 UK offices in April 2015 for some £40m.
Feilden had been responsible for collecting and administering tenancy deposits, including some which were paid in cash.
Where cash was taken, it had to be put in a store, to which Feilden had the keys.
The court heard that in 2015, Feilden was made redundant.
Despite this she asked to take the books home to update them. The court heard that it took Savills several months to retrieve the books, when the thefts were discovered. She admitted the offences under police interview last year.
Feilden has been released on bail, prior to sentencing at Ipswich Crown Court.
A spokesperson for Savills said: “Savills can confirm that Julie Feilden was an employee of Smiths Gore, based in its Newmarket high street office from 2010-2015 when these offences took place. Smiths Gore was subsequently acquired by Savills. No clients suffered a loss as a consequence.”
Comments (6)
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May I assume from your comment that Lettings ain’t your bag?
Separation of duties is one of the most significant processes in client cash accounting. Allowing the person who receives the cash to bank the cash or in this case not bank the case is simply negligent and criminal! The firms auditor had a duty to ensure separation of duty was in place otherwise every single audit is null and void; the physical bank account can simply be replicated on a spreadsheet and the two would then obviously reconcile.
Julie Feilden will take the rap for this and take the punishment but the management, executive board, trade body and their auditors are all as guilty as she is for allowing, then failing to detect this crime for 5 years.
Robert – totally agree and unfortunately this is not an isolated case there are many others.
I am personally helping with a current case on behalf of a landlord whom has lost circa £500k in tenancy deposits through an agency and the deposit scheme that was used has in my opinion abdicated their responsibilities.
I am literally cursed with knowing what is going on and the Tsunami of problems a great deal of my old customers now face.
Regulators, their auditors and the auditing process is designed to ensure no crime is ever more than 1 year old and that process is in place to see a firm operates in such a way as the first £1 missing is detected within a month
My objection to bought in CMP insurance is that the audit process is further weakened by the complacency of a perceived safety net.
So let’s get this right, the theft from tenancy deposits occurred over a 5 year period in which
1. This company was “acquired” whilst there was tenancy deposits missing?
2. Both pre aquasituon and post aquasituon they were members of ARLA whom conduct an annual check on client accounts?
…Discuss…