Pembrokeshire County Council has welcomed a sentence handed down in relation to a former employee who admitted fraud offences involving the misuse of council purchase cards.

56-year-old Karen Deakin, from Fleming Crescent, Haverfordwest, had previously been sentenced for theft by an employee and false accounting in 1996, obtaining equity by deception in 2004, and for making false representations for gain in 2012.

However, Pembrokeshire County Council still decided to employ her in a financial position, and she went on to spend almost £7,000 using her card and the cards of colleagues who had recently left while she worked as a purchase cards officer for the Local Authority.

A hearing at Swansea Crown Court revealed that Deakin used the company cards to pay her rent after getting into financial difficulties with an online gambling addiction, her sentencing hearing at Swansea Crown Court heard on October 27

The defendant’s offending came to light when a trainee accountant started to review the budget of the County Council’s department in November 2024.

The trainee thought that by that point in the year the department would've spent just over 50 per cent of its £1,000 budget for consumables, but data suggested the Council had spent 365 per cent.

When the trainee accountant looked into it she noticed that £3,036 had been spent in September on the work card of someone who had left their role at the end of August. The former employee was contacted about the payments but said she'd handed her card back when she left.

One of the payments was a £535 payment to Pembrokeshire County Council. When they looked into it the council found that it was made to a council housing rent account which was linked to Deakin.

Further payments to the same Council rent account were also made in September using the company card of another former employee who had left in July.

When Deakin's own company card was examined, it had made 18 payments to the account between March 22, 2024, and October 29, 2024, despite the fact it was supposed to have a £1 credit limit.

In total, Deakin spent £6,915.24 on the cards but the council said the real loss to the council had been closer to £10,000 due to the fact that she continued to be paid while she was suspended and under investigation.

Deakin pleaded guilty to fraud by abuse of position.

Judge Geraint Walters sentenced Deakin to 12 months in prison, suspended for two years. He order her to pay the entire amount back to Pembrokeshire County Council.

Following the sentencing, a spokesperson for the Local Authority said: “Pembrokeshire County Council takes any misuse of public funds extremely seriously.

“The Council welcomes the sentence handed down in relation to a former employee who admitted fraud offences involving the misuse of council purchase cards.

“We are pleased that the fraudulent activity was detected and addressed, and we will continue to review our procedures and controls to help prevent similar incidents in the future.”