A Brighouse grandmother working at a car dealership stole £2,000 from potential customers in just three months.

Lisa Hargreaves, 47, was working at Farnell Land Rover as a sales manager when she started using her customers' card details in January 2019.

Hargreaves, of Crowtrees Lane in Brighouse, was finally spotted when one of the customers noticed that she was registered with GoHenry, a children's debit account that allows family members to set up their own account to deposit money. Prosecutor Daniel Penman told Leeds Crown Court on Wednesday: "She [Hargreaves] was trusted to use the card machine and take deposits from people who wanted to buy cars and he or she may be in possession of the details. of the card".

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“On March 18, 2019, a lady paid a deposit of £250 and negotiated with the defendant. On April 9, 2019, she announced that a transaction of £80 had been made to GoHenry on behalf of Lisa Hargreaves. contacted Farnell Land Rover and there was a police investigation.

Penman said Hargreaves would "take potential customers' bank card details and use them to open accounts." The amount collected from 9 customers between January and April 2019 amounted to £2,377.23.

The court heard that Hargreaves had started working at the dealership in 2015 and had been a trusted member of the workers until they committed their crimes. When her crimes became too lenient in 2019, she was released. Penman told the court that Hargreaves had been convicted of shoplifting twice since he was a minor in 1991.

The prosecutor stated: "Farnell Land Rover and customers relied on her to handle card data securely."

Stuart Field, mitigating, said Hargreaves pleaded guilty to 9 counts of theft in a guilty plea, trial and trial in September of this year. Field said: “There is a pre-trial report. She is a single woman with adult children. She has a grandson. The background to this crime is that she was employed by Farnell Land Rover for three years. Two years into that role, she was a lovely employee who respected the company's perspectives and treated them like any employee should, and that slight started when she was there for two years.

"She just got out of a seven-year relationship where she was not only physically abused, but also suffered financially when [her then-partner] worked to pay back money that she was responsible for."

Mentioning that Hargreaves "bitterly regrets" his actions, Field has since worked in Dubai, adding that the company was "aware of the problems he encountered at Farnell Land Rover and gave him an excellent reference."

Judge Simon Phillips KC pardoned Hargreaves from a straight prison sentence, instead converting it to a 12-month sentence suspended for 18 months. He advised her: "In fact, I have read references on your behalf indicating that you have a great work ethic. It has been some time since this offense occurred and you have accomplished something in the months and years since."

Hargreaves was ordered to pay the £2,377.23 back to his nine victims and was advised to pay £1,500 by 2 November.

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