Council auctions designer goods to repay debts
Designer clothes bought on a spending spree by a young mother who had £52,000 mistakenly sent to her bank account will be sold by police on eBay to pay back the debt.
Michaela Hutchings splashed out on clothes, shoes, jeans, sunglasses and other luxuries in a spree at the Bullring Shopping Centre in Birmingham after being accidentally sent £52,127 by Lichfield District Council in April last year.
The mother-of-one was also ordered to repay the funds in six months or face a 20-month prison sentence.
But the 24-year-old later claimed she had been punished unfairly because of her good looks.
Staffordshire Police has now said the luxury goods she spent some of the cash on, with brands including Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Ralph Lauren and Dior, will be auctioned off to pay back Lichfield District Council following a proceeds of crime hearing.
The vast majority of the cash she received should have gone to Bromford Housing Association.
Hutchings, who lived in Hamlin Walk, Lichfield, when she was convicted in March, spent almost £5,000 on luxury goods and gave her family a £1,000 gift.
After paying off court fines, she also opened a savings account and transferred £40,000 into it.
During a previous court appearance, it emerged that when officers from Lichfield District Council realised they had transferred the cash into Hutchings bank account, they frantically hunted for her.
The council also managed to stop a further transfer of £44,500 to her in the accounts mix-up.
Following her arrest, Staffordshire Police recovered all but two items from the list of designer goods that she bought.
The cash gifted to her family was also recovered and a restraint order was obtained and served on her bank for the remaining funds in her bank accounts.
When she was sentenced in March, recorder Derek Desmond said: "I have no doubt you were influenced by your partner. He wanted to spend the money. You went on a spending spree and between you, you spent £9,000. This man who spurred you on is no longer in your life – no doubt your family will be glad about that."
Hutchings defended her actions by saying: "When I went to the cashpoint to take out some money I checked my balance and everything changed. There was over £50,000 in there. I didn't know what to do. Who would? All of this is my fault and I feel so sorry. I put my family in a position where they are being looked down on by everyone."
She said she had discovered the money in her account when she went to the shop to get milk and checked her balance.
Two days after her shopping spree, she received a call from her mother telling her it was the council's money.The auction was starting today.
