A FORMER civil servant has been jailed for nine months for stealing more than £9,000 from the Driver Licensing and Vehicle Registration Office.
Elaine Robilliard, 29, who admitted the offence, had for some years been a clerk at the Bulwer Avenue office.
The Royal Court heard that she had used her position – she alternated between back office work and the counter – and her knowledge of internal procedures to give herself cash. She stole £6,299.15 from 1 January to 25 July last year, £2,881.68 in 2006 and £138.80 in 2005.
Lt-Bailiff Sir de Vic Carey, presiding, said huge amounts of money moved about the island on a daily basis and employers had a right to expect that those handling it act with complete honesty.
He said the court accepted mitigation put forward by Advocate Chris Green, defending, that included the fact that Robilliard’s spiralling personal debt had amounted to £57,000 at the time of the offences in 2007, but it could not condone stealing.
Sir de Vic said Robilliard knew what she was doing and she tried as best she could to cover up her dishonesty.
Advocate Chris Dunford, prosecuting, said the offences were first brought to light when discrepancies in the cash takings were discovered for the month of July 2007.
As a result an audit was conducted by Treasury and Resources which highlighted a number of discrepancies on various sets of cashing-up sheets completed and signed by Robilliard.
More detailed work showed that the discrepancies coincided with Robilliard being on duty on particular tills. Control tests on records completed by other members of staff showed no significant findings.
The court heard that Robilliard had used a relatively simplistic method of stealing cash which involved a combination of the pink slips for renewal of motor tax, employee counter books, cashing up sheets and the till-roll printouts known as ‘pinks lists’ prepared by the cashier for cash, cheque or card payments.
Advocate Dunford explained how in interview Robilliard had expanded on how she had stolen the cash.
She would tax a car and enter the correct amount in the counter book but missed the sum out of the ‘pinks list’ and reconciled the document by subtracting the amount of cash she wanted to take each time.
Robilliard took cash during the day and hid it in the cash drawer. At the end of the day she would complete her books and the reconciliation by remembering what she had taken from a running total that she kept on a yellow ‘sticky’ note.
Advocate Green argued that a period of community service would be a more appropriate form of punishment for the mother of a two-and-a-half-year-old son, who has special needs.
He said the accused’s method of stealing was a simplistic one and once it was discovered there were discrepancies, then it would have been easy to trace them back to Robilliard.
He added that the money was never taken to buy luxuries but to pay off bills and to alleviate the pressures that were being put on her by creditors.
Loading ...
Share this article:
What are these?