Charity boss who spent £30,000 in donations must pay back every penny, judge rules

A charity executive will have to pay back every penny of the £30,000 she spent on KFC, Nandos and Pizza Hut even if it takes ten years, a judge has ruled.

Tanya Gilbert, 45, spent £20 a day for more than three-and-a-half years on herself using funds donated to Dimensions UK, a charity that supports adults with learning disabilities.

As assistant locality manager, she was given a company credit card to spend on essentials in 2015, but used it to pay for holidays with her three children.

Gilbert confessed she spent £28,238 on items for herself, causing her managers to question why budgets were so overstretched.  

Defending Gilbert, Adam King said she needed to ‘put food on the table’ for her children.

Tanya Gilbert (pictured), 45, spent £20 a day for more than three-and-a-half years on herself using funds donated to Dimensions UK, a charity that supports adults with learning disabilities

But Judge Emma Nott said: ‘This is much more than trips to Asda, she wasn’t buying 20p tins of beans was she? It was for her children when it should have been for the young vulnerable adults she was looking after.’    

The court heard that when the thefts started Gilbert was undergoing treatment for kidney cancer while her 14-year-old daughter was a patient at Great Ormond Street hospital, also suffering with kidney problems. 

Mr King said: ‘She is someone who has suffered quite a lot. She is a single mother of three children and 2015 was a nightmare year for her. 

‘She was not luxuriating, this is not one of those handbags and luxury holidays cases, this is supermarkets, shops and trips.

He said she was ‘not living the life of luxury’ and is now employed as a cleaner. 

‘Her children are not young, nor are they well,; he added. ‘Her 17-year-old son is to be assessed for autism and her two older daughters are suffering from psychosis and depression. This is not a happy family.’

Gilbert admitted a charge of fraud by false representation at Reading Crown Court. 

Judge Emma Nott said: ‘Dimensions UK was your employer, a not-for-profit charity that provides essential services to vulnerable young adults with disabilities. From September 11 2015 to April 5 2019 you were stealing routinely and regularly putting your own family’s needs first.

‘The money should have been spent on essentials and the odd luxury for these young adults who had a background of poverty. 

‘Instead, you were taking your family to McDonald’s, Nando’s, and Pizza Hut, taking them to the cinema, Warner Brothers studios and tenpin bowling. 

‘You stole nearly £30,000 and all you have done since being exposed is attempt to avoid the consequences.’

The judge blasted Gilbert for being ‘full of self-pity’ despite committing theft against ‘the most vulnerable’.

Gilbert admitted a charge of fraud by false representation at Reading Crown Court (pictured)

She added: ‘You had no regard for the young adults with learning difficulties you cared for but this court will have regard to your young adult children. It is for their welfare alone that I am going to take an exceptional course in this case.’

Gilbert, from Bracknell in Berkshire, was sentenced to a two-year prison term, suspended for two years and she will have to pay back every penny of the money she stole.

‘I do not care if it takes you 10 years,’ the judge added.

A spokesman for Dimensions UK said: ‘This fraud was uncovered through internal finance processes. We are satisfied with the outcome of the case.’

Dimensions UK was founded in 1976 and prides itself on meagre beginnings, with just a single phone in a rented office. 

Their website claims: ‘Forty years on, our work is fundamentally unchanged: we support people with learning disabilities and autism to have a louder voice, choice and control in their lives.

‘Our 7,000 colleagues deliver ambitious, effective, personalised support often with those whose previous support has not been successful. Together, we continue to prove that life really can get better.’