Telford £57,000 Tesco fraudster to pay back just £10
A Telford fraudster who along with her sister swindled Tesco for more than £90,000 in a vouchers scam has been told she only has to pay back £10.
Kim Walton, 34, and her sister Ann Ngyuen, 32, were jailed in August last year for conspiracy to defraud for the Facebook scam.
They ran a page called ‘Kims cheap days out’, which advertised tickets for days out at attractions including Alton Towers, Legoland and Thorpe Park.
But what those who bought the tickets received were in fact Tesco booster tickets that could be cashed in for an entrance ticket.
The booster tickets were obtained after a third party had hacked into a Tesco customer account to clone their clubcard points.
At their sentencing at Shrewsbury Crown Court, it was heard that the page was so popular it had almost 4,000 likes and, as well as advertising days out to various attractions, it also advertised family railcards and £5 cinema tickets.
Walton sold 1,936 tickets with £22,401 going in her bank account.
After paying £18,075 to the unidentified person who had hacked into the Tesco customer accounts, Walton had made a profit of £4,230.
The account showed Ngyuen had sold 1,056 tickets but had made a personal loss. The joint loss to Tesco was £90,736.
Walton was sentenced to 10 months and Ngyuen to four months.
Both have since been released, and were at Shrewsbury Crown Court for a proceeds of crime hearing.
Peter Arnold, prosecuting, said of Walton: “It is agreed that the amount she is responsible for is £57,653.48. Available assets are £10.”
Judge Anthony Lowe ordered Walton, of Waggoner’s Fold, Malinslee, Telford, to pay the nominal fee by July 14 or she would spend seven days in prison by default.
Ngyuen, of Battersea, south London, will have her finances investigated ahead of another proceeds of crime hearing on August 9.
