Yahoo News Shameless spending of finance officer who defrauded £60,000 from Grenfell victim fund
A former finance manager who defrauded around £60,000 from the Grenfell Tower victim fund has been jailed for five and a half years.
Jenny McDonagh, took £62,000 meant for survivors of the tragedy using pre-paid credit cards and spent the funds on trips to Dubai and Los Angeles, expensive dinners and online gambling.
McDonagh, the former finance manager for Kensington and Chelsea Council, was first arrested on August 1 and used a stolen card again two days later.
The 39-year-old, from Abbey Wood, south-east London, pleaded guilty to two offences of fraud, one of theft and another of concealing criminal property, at Westminster Magistrates Court last month.
Prosecutor Robert Simpson described her as a ‘serial fraudster’ who ‘lives beyond her means and gambles’.
Mr Simpson said she was also under investigation for suspected frauds against her former employers, Medway NHS Trust in Kent and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
READ MORE ON YAHOO NEWS UK
This is how much Apple’s new £1,249 iPhone actually costs to make
The shocking stat about cheating university students amid calls for ban on essay-writing firms
Driver’s miracle escape after giant concrete post impales his car
Woman’s warning after sex predator, 41, posed as Uber driver then groped her
I’ll call a general election: Corbyn brands a no-deal Brexit a ‘national disaster’
Scotland Yard applies for MORE cash in hunt for missing Madeleine McCann
He added: ‘It’s suggested she obtained around £35,000 by means of fraud when working for the NHS trust.’
He said the alleged fraud against the museum ‘hadn’t got far enough for her to obtain anything from it, but it had potential’.
McDonagh was previously ordered to quit her current job as finance officer at a mental health charity and inform the police before taking on any further work.
She also had to surrender her passport and was banned from applying for other travel documents.
Seventy-two people died as a result of the fire on June 14 last year.
