A pregnant fraudster will give birth in prison after she was jailed for swindling £65,000 from her property management employers in a joint scam with her HUSBAND.
Doli Begum, 27, used false references to land the job in 2010 and then abused her position to pay cash into bogus accounts.
Begum arranged for work to be done on leasehold developments and was authorised to sign off payments of up to £1,000 to contractors.
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But the property manager was caught in May 2012 when she tried to put through £53,000 worth of payments on 58 invoices.
A court heard Begum had conspired with her husband Syed Shah, 28, to set-up three companies, one in 2010 and two in 2011, using bogus names and email addresses.
She then directed all the work out to them from the estate management firm on Hagley Road, Birmingham – but it was either never done or was vastly overpriced.
Begum resigned after being caught in May 2012 but police discovered she had already stolen £65,000.
And the husband and wife, from Stechford, Birmingham, duo were jailed for a total of three years and ten months on last Friday.
Begum pleaded guilty to four counts of fraud by false representation and was caged for two years and two months at Birmingham Crown Court.
Shah admitted two counts of fraud of false representation and was jailed for one year and eight months.
Sentencing the pair, His Honour Judge Richard Bond described Doli Begum as the “brains” behind the operation.
He told her that the fact she resigned and then attempted to obtain further employment using fraudulent references showed a “continuation of her dishonest behaviour.”
In mitigation, Begum’s barrister argued that she should be spared jail because she had recently discovered she was pregnant and cared for her wheelchair-bound mother.
But Judge Bond told the pair the amounts involved were so vast he had little choice but to give custodial sentences.
Speaking after the hearing, Detective Constable Richard Causier, from West Midlands Police’s Economic Crime Unit, said: “As is often the case with fraudsters, Begum and Shah were caught as a direct result of their own greed.
“Begum fraudulently obtained her position, abused the trust of her employer and then tried to do the same again.
“Thanks to the vigilance of her co-workers it was only a matter of time before we caught up with her.
“Proceedings are now underway to get back the stolen cash, some of which we know was used by the pair to put down a deposit on a property, a property they won’t be able to enjoy now they’re in prison.”
