Ebay auction brings in over £1,500 after pay blunder
Designer clothes put on eBay by police after being bought on a spending spree by a young mother who had £52,000 mistakenly sent to her bank account have fetched more than £1,500 at auction so far.
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 24-year-old, from Lichfield, was convicted of dishonestly retaining a wrongful credit at Stafford Crown Court earlier this year and was handed a 12-month community order, with 150 hours unpaid work.
She was also ordered to repay the funds in six months or face a 20-month prison sentence.
Eleven of the 24 items which were put up for auction on eBay by Staffordshire police in order to repay Lichfield District Council came to an end yesterday and brought in a total of £1,525.50.
Dozens of bids were made for the items of clothing, which included trainers, bags and sunglasses, and the auctions for the remaining 13 bundles of designer wear were due to end today.
Among the items that sold yesterday was a Louis Vuitton bag which fetched £410 and was the top seller.
Another Gucci tote handbag went for £210, while Gucci trainers fetched £225 and a Louis Vuitton belt sold for £205.
A pair of Gucci ladies sandals also raked in £142 and Dior ladies sunglasses sold for £124.
Police said all of the items were purchased at full retail price in High Street stores and were seized the day after purchase.
After her conviction, the mother-of-one claimed that she was being punished unfairly because of the way she looks.
She spent more than £7,000 of the money over a two-day period.
She splashed out almost £5,000 buying luxury goods by Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Ralph Lauren and Dior amongst other brands.
She gave her family £1,000 of the cash, which has been recovered, and spent a further £1,093.55 paying off outstanding court fines. Hutchings, who lived in Hamlin Walk, Lichfield, when she was convicted in March, also opened a savings account with £40 and transferred £40,000 from the credited funds to this account.
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 has been recovered and a restraint order was obtained and served on her bank for the remaining funds in her bank accounts.
A proceeds of crime hearing was held at Stafford Crown Court in June and the court made an order that £51,006.55 should be paid back, prompting police to put the clothing and accessories she bought up at auction.
See also:
Woman's spending spree after council blunder put £52,000 in account
Mother defends spree after £52k put in bank by Staffordshire council blunder
Mother told to pay back £51k or face jail after council account blunder
Council blunder mother: 'I've done nothing wrong, they're punishing me because of the way I look'
