Secretary who defrauded top law firm jailed
A FORMER secretary has been sentenced to 15 months in jail after defrauding the top law firm she worked for out of �28,000.
Over a period of two years, Jodie Groom, 33, splurged on designer clothes and exotic holidays with company credit cards belonging to her bosses at Canary Wharf based Clifford Chance.
When she was arrested in June 2009, she tried to blame the crimes on fellow secretary, Kay Flanagan – who ended up committing suicide just a year later.
Groom was sentenced on Thursday January 27 at Snaresbrook Crown Court after pleading guilty to 16 counts of fraud.
The fraudster, of Taylofers, Harlow, had worked for the company for ten years.
She was a secretary to senior partners and between January 2007 and July 2009, she used their cards to fund her lucrative lifestyle.
DC Karen McGarry, a specialist fraud investigator at Tower Hamlets Police said: “Miss Groom abused the trust placed in her by the partners she worked for.
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“This was a deliberate and lengthy fraud over almost two years, the property and cash she stole has never been found and she has never returned any of it.”
