Siobhan Ferguson was convicted of fraud by false accounting at Preston Crown Court
A mother of five has narrowly escaped a prison sentence after her gambling addiction led her to commit fraud at the convenience shop where she was employed.
Siobhan Ferguson was found guilty of fraud by false accounting at Preston Crown Court, following revelations that she had been taking National Lottery tickets and scratch cards from the Premier Store on Devonshire Road in Ulverston where she worked. The court heard that throughout 2020, Ferguson’s gambling addiction got the better of her, causing financial loss and trust issues for her employer.
Ferguson began her employment at the convenience store as a part-time shop assistant, with her duties including the sale of National Lottery tickets and scratch cards. Her boss, Nigel List, hired her in 2019, having known her as a customer for approximately six years.
The lottery tickets they sold were packaged in National Lottery packets and were activated by scanning a barcode into a separate National Lottery terminal, distinct from the main till. This process registered them as active on the database, with the National Lottery’s software monitoring when a scratch card was activated.
In 2020, Mr List became suspicious when he noticed an unusual increase in the activation of scratch cards. He stated that typically, they sold around seven packets a week, but suddenly around 12 were being activated, leading him to believe he should be approximately £2.5k richer each month, reports Lancs Live.
Following examination of the CCTV footage, Mr List witnessed the defendant processing numerous scratch cards through the terminal. After monitoring the surveillance cameras for some time, he observed her putting through multiple scratch cards for personal use, with several payouts being processed.
Various scratch cards were also discovered concealed beneath the till. Upon alerting police, nearly seven thousand scratch cards and lottery tickets were recovered from her house, with many located in the downstairs bathroom. The combined value of these items found at the property totalled approximately £19,000.
Whilst she attempted to balance her accounts using winnings at day’s end, Ferguson acknowledged her gambling dependency and conceded in her plea that there might have been a deficit. The court was informed that prosecutors had estimated potential revenue loss at around £55,000, though the actual financial damage proved “difficult to quantify”, according to Mr Recorder B Lawrence.
In his victim impact statement, Mr List said the store almost faced closure following the fraud. Both he and his wife have since struggled with trusting others, he said, with Mr List confessing he now finds himself constantly reviewing CCTV recordings.
In his statement, he declared: “My wife and I gave you a job offer when you needed employment and in return you abused our trust. You nearly cost five people their jobs because we nearly shut the shop for good.
“The betrayal and financial loss have had a huge strain on my family and marriage. It has taken me the best part of the last four years to generally trust people again. Myself and my wife find it very difficult to trust people and the upset will stay with us for the rest of our lives.”
The court was informed that Ferguson, having quit gambling and avoided trouble since her arrest, was considered to have a low risk of reoffending. Additionally, with five children at home – the youngest still being breastfed – Mr Recorder B Lawrence decided that Ferguson could be spared an immediate custodial sentence to prevent undue hardship on innocent family members.
He stated: “Through most of 2020 you succumbed to that addiction by taking national lottery tickets and scratch cards. It is difficult to quantify the loss in this case, police found you in possession of £19k worth of tickets and scratch cards. If maybe you had paid for some of them you could not have paid for all of them.
“You are 40 years of age, you were a lady of good character before this offence and have committed no offences since 2020.”
Ferguson, from Devonshire Road, Ulverston, received a 15-month sentence, suspended for 18 months. She is also required to complete 150 hours of unpaid work and pay a victim surcharge.
