A WOMAN who worked for Insight Opticians in Princess Square tried to steal £6,000 from her employers.
In a story posted online on Wednesday, December 29, the News revealed the sentence 36-year-old Trisha Patel received following a court hearing earlier this month.
But Ms Patel is not the only one from the local area who has been convicted of stealing or attempting to steal from their place of work.
Here are the names of other residents who have been in court for their thieving.
Karen Irvine
A thief who has stolen almost £47,000 from three different companies she has worked for has been spared jail for the third time.
Karen Irvine, of Spinners Green, Bracknell, stole £8,000 from a Surrey-based catering company over a period of 14 months between 2018 and 2019.
This was her third such offence, having stolen money from HP and DHL in the 2000s.
After being handed a suspended sentence, a judge warned Irvine this was her “last chance” and that the “sword of Damocles” was “hanging over her head”.
The 50-year-old was employed as a catering manager by Armarak Ltd, a catering company that supplied food for employees at Dell in Bracknell.
In charge of finances in her role, Irvine was able to pocket £8,000 through swapping cash for coins needed for change.
After almost 14 months of clawing the cash from her employers, the Bracknell resident was caught out by a co-worker in December 2019.
She was arrested the same month and admitted to stealing the money in a police interview.
Recorder Mr Dyer handed Irvine a 12-month prison sentence suspended for two years.
Irvine was told she was free to go following her sentencing at Reading Crown Court on Thursday, October 7.
Lisa Garland
A fraudster who stole more than £55,000 from tech giants Panasonic has been told she will not serve time behind bars.
Lisa Garland, of Lochinver, Bracknell, was handed a suspended prison sentence at Reading Crown Court in May despite stealing thousands of pounds from her employers.
Instead of jail time, she will be forced to carry out 300 hours of unpaid work and be made to serve a home curfew.
The 42-year-old worked as a customer services supervisor at the tech company after being hired in March 2017.
From December 2017 to December 2019, she defrauded her employers by offering ‘refunds’ to family and friends who complained about Panasonic items.
Her actions came to light when Garland, who was in charge of a Panasonic voucher scheme, reported some vouchers had gone missing.
This caused investigations to start and eventually resulted in police trawling through her bank account matching payments to the electrical goods which were sent out.
Her Honour Judge Norton sentenced her to two years and four years in prison suspended for 18 months for the counts of fraud and theft.
Richard Zarifeh
A Wokingham man defrauded Bracknell’s Jemca Toyota car dealership of more than £750,000 in a bid to fuel his gambling addiction.
Richard Zarifeh, of Church Lane, Arborfield, will serve three years and ten months behind bars as punishment for his actions after being sentenced in April.
The 32-year-old started funnelling money from the sale of the John Nike Way dealership’s cars into his own bank account in January 2017 and continued this abuse of power for more than two years.
Acting as a corporate sales executive at the firm, he was able to access the company’s systems to help “cover up” the fraud.
His actions came to light when he confessed his stealing -- which cost the car dealership a total of £777,620 -- to a colleague at a meeting he had arranged.
Nicolas Bornman-Hill
Sindlesham man Nicolas Bornman-Hill was told he will have to pay back the £22,000 he stole from Wokingham Methodist Church over the course of four years at Reading Crown Court in June.
The 50-year-old avoided jail because he proved to a Judge that he could pay back the cash.
Bornman-Hill, of Harrow Way, defrauded Wokingham Methodist Church of £22,153.61 between August 2013 and December 2017.
The Sindlesham man was able to access this cash because he worked as the church’s treasurer during this time.
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