Student voucher fraud by council employee

FORMER council education worker Susan Rathmill has been given a 16-month suspended jail sentence for theft.

In June, 2012, the council’s Internal Audit and Counter Fraud Team launched an investigation into the misuse of thousands of pounds worth of vouchers and found Rathmill, a children’s workforce development consultant, had set up a fake scheme using Love2Reward vouchers.

This claimed students who gained college qualifications would be rewarded with vouchers redeemable at high street stores. Officers were unable to find any evidence that students had received vouchers; the documents they were given had been falsified.

The company in charge of the scheme found a £1,100 bed had been bought using the vouchers and delivered to Rathmill’s home address.

Rathmill was dismissed by the council for gross misconduct in February 2013 and arrested by police a week later. She later pleaded guilty to eight counts of theft totalling £16,818. At Manchester Crown Court on Friday her jail sentence was suspended for a year and she was electronically tagged for four months and ordered to do 180 hours of unpaid work. A proceeds of crime hearing will be held later.