Longhoughton sub post office boss admits fraud shame

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Longhoughton sub post office boss admits fraud shame

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A TRUSTED Post Office boss fleeced her employers out of thousands to keep her shop afloat, a court heard.

Kathleen Stuart was a respected member of her Northumberland community. She was sub post master in the local Post Office and ran the shop where it was based. In that role she played a prominent role to safeguard the future of RAF Boulmer in 2003 and 2004.

But when the retail premises started struggling financially, Stuart cooked the books and used Post Office funds to prop up the shop.

Now she has been given a suspended prison sentence after she admitted fraud by abuse of position at Newcastle Crown Court.

Sentencing her, Judge John Evans said: “It was a high degree of trust because the Post Office rely on employees to deal with significant sums of cash in an honest fashion.”

Stuart had been working as a sub post master at the Post Office in Longhoughton, near Alnwick, since 2006. She was trusted and respected by villagers and her employers, the court heard.

But when the shop started struggling to make ends meet, she began defrauding the Post Office.


Judge Evans said: “It would seem looking at your references you gained the trust and respect of the villagers and there is no reason to think in the early days of you being sub post master you were doing anything other than running the business as it should have been run.

“However things deteriorated. That may be because of the problems which have been experienced generally within the Post Office. One way or another, in an effort to provide the local community with the services it benefited from, you started to take money from the Post Office to support the retail business.”

When auditors came to look at the books last year, Stuart immediately told them she had been using Post Office money to support the shop for around two years. Checks showed £16,565 was unaccounted for and Stuart was interviewed.

Joanne Clough, prosecuting, said: “She made full admissions and said she had used the money to keep the business running and to pay utility bills.

“She put deposits into her bank accounts but did not put the money back in the tills. She hid it by falsifying accounts and inflating cash declarations.”

The court heard Stuart, 38, of Burnside, Longhoughton, who has never been in trouble before, has resigned from the job.

She pleaded guilty to fraud and was given 12 months’ prison, suspended for two years, with 200 hours of unpaid work. She must also pay the Post Office £16,565 in compensation.

The court heard Stuart has been declared bankrupt on the back of three overdrafts, seven credit cards and a business loan, the total debt being £80,000.

Susan Hirst, defending, said: “The references reflect the real character of Kathleen Stuart. She is extremely hard-working, caring and well thought of in her local community.

“Effectively she has lost everything because of her actions.”

Miss Hirst added: “This is not a case where she just put her hand in the till. Her credit card debts spiralled out of control and as time went by the problem escalated. She found herself in a huge financial mess and has taken the wrong course to get herself out of it. She is extremely remorseful for what she has done.”

The court heard Stuart is now working in a veterinary practice and a local pub and has started to pay back her ill-gotten gains.