Sub-postmistress in court
A former North Norfolk sub-postmistress, who got in a muddle with her accounts and covered up her losses of nearly �12,000 by false accounting, has been ordered to do 200 hours unpaid work.
Alison Henderson, 51, of Worstead Post Office, Back Lane, admitted false accounting when she appeared at Norwich Crown Court on Wednesday. She was cleared by the judge of a charge of theft.
The court heard she recorded false figures over a 13 year period from January 1997 to February 2010 to cover up the losses.
She has since repaid all the money back to the Post Office.
Luke Hindmarch, prosecuting on behalf of the Post Office, said that the shortfall of �11,957 was discovered after an audit had taken place at the post office and said that Henderson accepted she had covered up the losses by false accounting.
Judge Martin Binning ordered her to do 200 hours unpaid work and pay �1400 towards prosecution costs.
He told her: 'What you did was a breach of trust.'
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However he accepted that the shortfall had been caused by 'inefficiency and mismanagement' and she had now given a cheque to pay the cash back.
Michael Clare, for Henderson, said her husband had taken out a loan to repay the money and she was now unemployed.
'She has done the decent and sensible thing.'
