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Emma Meechan, is now in prison after abusing trust that was placed on her by Gala Bingo in Castle Street, Banbury where she worked. It has been reported that 28 year old Emma stole more than £16,000 whist working as a cashier for Gala Bingo after taking advantage of a technical error with the swipe card system the company used.
Ms Meechan is now about to pay dearly for her crime after being found guilty and sentenced to 8 months in prison by the Oxford Crown Court on Monday. It wasn’t just Emma who was on the take however as her Manager at the time, Mr Colin Ricalton, also took advantage of this glitch and stole £23,000, he was sentenced to 14 months at a previous hearing that took place on 31st March.
It was the buzzcard system that Gala Bingo provided for their players to use, that was at the center of their fraud. The buzzcard allows their customers to put money onto a credit card like device and store their winnings there. An error occurred on the system and instead of leaving the balance as £0 as it should have done it left a balance of £167,000 and this is where the money was filtered from by both parties.
The Oxford Crown Court were told that a anonymous tip of lead to the thefts being discovered. Ms Meechan had been fleecing this system for more than 13 months before the theft was uncovered and although she has been sentenced to 8 months in prison, she will serve just half of this time.
Jane Malcom, who was defending in this case had this to say in Emma Meechan’s defence, “Meechan had admitted her theft as soon as she was caught and helped police with their investigation. She is deeply ashamed and sorry for what she has done. The crime was "not a sophisticated one" and Meechan had used the money only to supplement her income of about £140 per week, not to live an extravagant lifestyle. She realises she abused a position of trust and she knows that whatever happens here today was caused by her own greed”.
It seems like the temptation to take the money was just too much for both of the defendants, who are now paying for their crimes.
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