Advertising PA in walks free from £34k fraud trial as judge tells her: 'I hate sending women to prison'

An advertising agency PA who spent more than £34,000 on lavish spending sprees and holidays around the world with the company credit card walked free from court after a judge told her: "I hate sending women to prison".

Sophie Franklin, 30, defrauded Bermondsey-based Circle Square Agency over two years while working as the office manager, booking herself hotels, buying designer clothes and taking hundreds of taxi rides.

She was rumbled in February last year when she left the agency and her replacement discovered a catalogue of black holes in the company accounts.

Among the spending were holidays to Milan, Rome, and Greek island of Pathos, as well as flights from Tahiti to Bora Bora and to Hong Kong, Inner London crown court heard.

When Franklin faced sentence in January, Judge Owen Davies QC said he "hates sending women to prison" and deferred the hearing for four months to monitor her progress in paying back the stolen money.

At court this morning, the judge stuck to his promise not to jail Franklin, telling her

"You should be in the community where you belong".

"The picture I get is you have learned your lesson, you have become a lot more mature since the making of these fraudulent transactions", he said, sentencing her to 18-months in prison suspended for two years and 100 hours of community service.

"The punitive element should not be incarceration for a woman of 31 who has no previous convictions and has not offended before - you should be in the community where you belong."

Franklin, who wiped away tears as the sentence was passed, has paid back £34,000, largely thanks to donations from friends and family, but still owes the ad agency another £4000 which it spent investigating her fraudulent payments.

The court heard she racked up more than £7,000 in taxi fares, £4,418 on phone bills, and more than £1000 on Apple goods.

Franklin also did grocery shopping at Tesco, Sainsbury's, and Waitrose with company funds, ordered goods online to be sent to Ireland, and spent more than £1000 on designer Aspinall shirts, John Lewis goods, and theatre tickets.

She had been employed as office manager and personal assistant to the managing directors, handling travel and accommodation, office supplies, signing off expenses, and paying mobile phone bills.

"You have consistently used your position to use the funds available to you to live a life beyond what you were paid for ", said the judge.

"The sum of money that was paid by the firm and which you defrauded did not in any way reflect what you needed to have."

Circle Square provide shops and retail stores with displays and promotional campaigns, counting Toblerone, Lacoste, and Johnnie Walker among its clients.

At the hearing in January, Franklin's barrister said she had a new job at advertising agency FCB Inferno in Covent Garden as a senior talent partner and her bosses were standing by her despite the fraud conviction.

But Judge Davies said he had been contacted by FCB Inferno who said they only learnt of the conviction when it was reported in the press.

He said it was possible Franklin had been "economical with the truth", but said he would sentence on the basis she had told her new employers about the criminal case.

The court heard Franklin, from Basildon in Essex was dismissed by FCB Inferno after the last court hearing in January and is now working with a waitress.

She was ordered to pay the remaining money back to Circle Square within the next year.