An NHS administrator has been spared jail after sending £80,000 of taxpayer money to her Nigerian on-line boyfriend.
Between June 2021 and January 2023, Hyacinth Blair, 63, withdrew massive sums from South London & Maudsley NHS belief accounts.
Blair proceeded to ship the eye-watering amount of money to Michael Okafor, a Nigerian man whom she had been relationship on-line.
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The NHS staffer mentioned that she felt "helpless" after being pressured by Okafor to ship the cash from her employer's accounts.
Choose Lynn Tayton KC mentioned that the cash stolen by Blair was supposed for use for public companies – and that the NHS employee's actions had triggered injury to her colleagues.
She mentioned: “There needed to be thorough evaluation of economic controls… incidents like this undermine confidence within the council’s techniques.
“The implications of your actions can be felt for very long time and the influence on employees and the group was extreme.”
Blair initially instructed probation officers that she had "no thought" why she pocketed the taxpayer money from her employer's account, however later mentioned that she was “in an internet relationship with a person in Nigeria who demanded cash”.
The court docket heard that the 63-year-old is now unemployed, on Common Credit score, and has suffered from despair.
Tayton mentioned: “You mentioned you felt stress to provide this cash. You instructed the officer you felt involved about taking cash out of your employer however felt helpless.
“For my part there was sustained dishonesty not solely defined by stress or psychological well being points.”
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Blair was handed a two-year jail sentence, suspended for 2 years, after pleading responsible to fraud by abuse of place.
The choose defined her determination to not ship the fraudster to jail was right down to her having "no earlier convictions" and references that "communicate of constructive character".
Alongside the suspended sentence, Blair was ordered to hold out 250 hours of unpaid work, 15 days of rehabilitation exercise and should undergo six months of psychological well being remedy.
The choose labelled Blair "lucky" and warned her that "if you happen to come again earlier than this court docket you’ll go to jail".
Romance fraud noticed Britons swindled out of £106million within the final 12 months, in accordance with police information.
Victims parted with over £11,000 on common – and virtually 10,000 particular person circumstances of romance fraud have been reported within the final monetary 12 months.
The Nationwide Fraud Intelligence Bureau reported that these sort of scams have risen by 9 per cent prior to now 12 months.
The Affiliation of British Investigators mentioned that the scams are largely run by organised crime syndicates, predominantly from West African nations corresponding to Ghana and Nigeria.