A Honiton accountant has been jailed for swindling £200,000 from a charity using funds to pay for a holiday, home improvements and to clear her credit card.
Geraldine Coates, aged 60, of Kings Road, Honiton, earlier this year was found guilty of fraud after standing trial at Exeter Crown Court where she denied syphoning off funds from Honiton Show organisers, the Honiton and District Agricultural Association (HDAA)
Coates, who runs an accountancy business in Chapel Street, Honiton, on Monday (August 10) was jailed for three years and nine months after it was revealed she had taken advantage of the charity’s trust and diverted funds into her own account over many years.
Jailing Coates, Judge Stephen Climie said the charity’s trust had been ‘abused beyond belief’ after she syphoned ‘substantial quantities’ of cash for her own benefit.
Confiscation proceedings will follow at a later date.
Prosecutor Alistair Heggarty said Coates had carried out “systematic fraud” against a charity who donated money to local agricultural and educational causes, pocketing funds over nine years for her own benefit.
The court heard how Honiton and District Agricultural Association suffered ‘professional, personal and mental anguish’ and reputational damage amid the ‘despicable actions and betrayal of trust’ by Coates.
The jury was told Coates had been trusted to manage the charity’s finances but diverted around £200,000 into her own accounts.
She pocketed £11,083.55 from the charity to pay off her own credit card, falsely claiming the money had paid for police patrols at the Honiton Show.
The court was told Coates was ‘an outwardly respectable woman, entrusted by a local charity to look after their finances’, but ‘succumbed to temptation and took advantage of her position by defrauding them’.
The jury heard Coates was the director of her own-named accountancy business, based in Honiton.
Between 1996 and 2018 Coates held a trusted position of treasurer of the Honiton and District Agricultural Association, a registered charity that annually makes donations to local agricultural and educational causes.
Coates was responsible for signing off cheque payments, the paying of bills and day-to-day running of the charity’s accounts.
But she forged signatures on HDAA cheques, enabling her to divert large sums of money to her own account.
Her lies were uncovered during financial checks in 2018 after a dispute between Coates and HDAA over a missing payment to a supplier.
The court heard she had used her husband’s business account to process a £40,000 payment to a HDAA supplier.
But an email was hacked and the payment transferred to a fraudster’s account.
At the same time Coates wrote two cheques to cover the sum and made them payable to her husband’s business.
When the supplier made HDAA aware that no payment had been received, the funds paid to Coates’ husband’s business were returned to HDAA, prompting him to ‘seek redress’ for the loss.
The jury heard HDAA state how Coates had not been authorised to pay her husband money, or ask him to make payments on behalf of the charity.
As a result, further financial checks were made at HDAA which uncovered additional suspicious transactions, prompting Coates to resign in November 2018.
Missing invoices and more cheques with forged signatures were found
And Coates was found to have faked bank statements in a bid to hide her deceit.
The court heard how fraudulent transactions made by Coates totalled around £205,000 after she wrote HDAA cheques, payable to herself.
She hid her deceit through the HDAA accounts ledger, transferring money into her own account and invoicing the charity as known suppliers.
In 2016 she recorded a £11,083 payment to Devon and Cornwall Police for policing Honiton Show. But the funds went to her own account. And an amount she claimed had been paid to HM Revenue & Customs was found to be false.
Detective Constable Alan Findlay from the fraud triage and support team at Devon and Cornwall Police, said: “Geraldine Coates over the course of around nine years between 2009 and 2018 betrayed a position of trust she held at a highly thought-of local charity.
“Due to the length of time Coates had been in the role and the good relationship she had with committee members, she had full trust to manage the charity’s finances and accounts in its best interests.
“HDAA promotes agricultural and educational causes and Coates defrauded the charity out of vital funds that could have been used to benefit others, spending the money on her own needs and wants.
“Coates took active steps to try and cover her offending and at no point did she have the courage to admit what she did – even taking the matter to trial despite the strong financial evidence against her.”
He added: “I’d like to thank the jury for their attention to detail when considering the case, and welcome the sentence given to Coates. I would also like to thank the HDAA for their co-operation at what was undoubtedly a difficult time for those at the charity whose trust had been betrayed by someone they knew well.”
