Hoover, beds, gym gear, cuddly toy - crooked social worker's haul

A SOCIAL worker who defrauded her council bosses out of nearly £9,000 worth of goods that should have gone to needy families has been jailed for more than two years.

Jennifer Stephen charged a string of items to her employers at Aberdeenshire Council.

The 47-year-old senior social worker, who was paid 37,000 a year to provide financial support to the vulnerable and disabled, was sentenced to 28 months in prison after admitting to committing fraud, worth 8,885.78, over three years.

Sheriff Marysia Lewis, in Peterhead, said the mother-of-four's breach of trust had brought "shame" on her family and "diminished funding for those in desperate need".

Stephen, of McGregor Crescent, Peterhead, who has been suspended from the council, submitted fraudulent standing orders between September 2005 and August 2008.

Jailing her yesterday, Sheriff Lewis said: "I accept that you deeply regret your actions and that you are upset by the impact which this offence has had on your family.

"However, you had control of an element of the spending budget for the children and families team.

"You knew the system for ordering goods for families most in need. You held a position of trust within the team and you seriously abused that trust.

• Shopping list

"You carried out these activities over a significant period of time. Some of the goods were in the bracket of luxury goods, for example gym equipment.

"These purchases were for your benefit or the benefit of your family and in making these purchases you diminished the fund available for those in real need."

Defence agent John Adam said Stephen could not explain why she committed the fraud.

He said: "Her conduct flies in the face of everything she believes in, everything she was taught as a social worker and everything she has taught to others while in a managerial role.

"There is no rational explanation as to why this occurred."

An Aberdeenshire Council spokesman said the local authority could not comment on former members of staff or criminal matters. "But we can assure people that as soon as the matter was brought to our attention we dealt with it swiftly, investigating the matter internally as well as assisting police," he said.

A Victim Support Scotland spokesman said: "It's always regrettable when cases crop up where the actions of a person committing a crime means that funds to those in need are affected."

Mr Adam urged the court not to impose a custodial sentence so Stephen could keep her job and pay back the money in a lump sum. But Sheriff Lewis said the only appropriate sentence was one of custody, given the gravity and the persistence in fraudulent activity.