Mother told to pay back £51k or face jail after council account blunder
A young mother who went on a spending spree with a £52,000 'windfall' sent to her bank account by mistake has been told to pay the money back or face a prison sentence.
Michaela Hutchings from Lichfield splashed out on designer clothes, shoes, jeans, sunglasses and other luxuries at the Bullring in Birmingham. The mother-of-one had been accidentally sent £52,127 by Lichfield District Council in April last year. Of that, £51,821 should have in fact gone to Bromford Housing Association. Instead of handing it all back, Hutchings, aged 23, went shopping with her partner.
She spent £9,000 and also gave her mother a £1,000 gift before putting the rest into savings.
In March, Hutchings admitted a charge of dishonestly retaining a wrongly-credited bank transfer at Stafford Crown Court. She was spared jail and handed a 12-month community order, with 150 hours of unpaid community work.
During a proceeds of crime hearing at the same court on Tuesday, Hutchings was ordered to pay £51,006 back. Clothes and accessories she bought will be sold at auction in order to help pay the confiscation order.
The court previously heard when officers from Lichfield District Council realised they had transferred the cash into Hutchings bank account, they frantically hunted for her. The council managed to stop a further transfer of £44,500 to her in the accounts mix-up.
Immediately following her arrest, Staffordshire Police recovered all but two items from the list of designer goods she bought.
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? I feel so sorry."
Hutchings, who lived in Hamlin Walk, Lichfield, when she was sentenced in March, has six months to pay the money back or face a 20-month prison sentence.
