Victim’s dismay after ‘compulsive liar’ mum who stole £78,000 spared jail

A business has shared its disappointment after a former employee who stole more than £75,000 from them was spared jail.

Meghan Reynolds racked up huge bills on company cards between 2019 and 2021 and set up a ‘network of dishonesty’ to try and avoid being caught out.

The 28-year-old defrauded Dartford-based electrical machinery firm CSL Power Systems out of £78,000, who caught and dismissed her in March 2021.

During the 16 months she worked there, Reynolds was in charge of book keeping and made online purchases for colleagues on their behalf.

But instead she used the 11 company cards to make fraudulent transactions.

When an employee noticed a purchase did not have a matching receipt, she tasked Reynolds with reporting it to Barclaycard Bank – an action she did not take, instead providing ‘fictional’ updates to the company.

By February, 2021, when an employee found a bank statement for an EasyJet flight in her name, the police were called and discovered no fraud had been reported to the bank.

Reynolds, a mum of two, including a four-and-a-half month old baby who was born prematurely, brought a suitcase to her sentencing in case she was sent to prison.

But the judge spared her a prison sentence as she is the primary caregiver to her children.

Judge Smith handed down 24 months in prison for the first count, 15 months in prison for count two, and six months in prison for count three, all suspended for two years and to be served concurrently.

She was given 15 rehabilitation activity requirement days and 200 hours unpaid work.

Judge Smith added: ‘You are being given a chance today because of your two children. If you breach this order what you are telling the court is that you do not care.’

After the hearing, a spokesperson from CSL Power Systems criticised the sentence.

They said: ‘As a company and on a personal level we are thoroughly disappointed with the sentencing ruling by the judge and feel it has sent out the wrong message in today’s society.

‘Essentially you can steal £100,000 from honest businesses and walk away without ever seeing the inside of a cell as long as you have a well-timed pregnancy!

‘We let Miss Reynolds into our lives, and after COVID she worked from offices in our home and we thought she was also a friend.’

Describing their feelings of betrayal, the company also claimed Reynolds had never shown any remorse or apologised for her actions.

Only a month after being fired from CSL Power Systems, Reynolds joined a new company, ATL Retail Ltd, where she stole £18,500 from them in the nine months she worked there.

It was only through a chance meeting with someone from CSL that Reynolds’ fraudulent past became knowledge to her new employer.

ATL Retail Limited made Reynolds redundant and discovered a number of fraudulent transactions, totalling £18,500.

Later that year she took out a finance agreement with Creation Finance for over £1,000 using her then boyfriend Callum Bishop’s name and details.

The night before he left he found a letter for a financial agreement in his name, and after ringing the company he found Reynold’s mobile number was linked to the loan.

Reynolds, from Rainham, spent the cash on Tefal pans, hotel stays, her car insurance bill and trips to Amsterdam.

She even pretended she had cancer to get time off work and told a boyfriend she was pregnant with a fake scan to avoid scrutiny.

Reynolds had initially denied the offences and a trial date was set for February this year, but she changed her pleas to guilty less than two weeks before the trial was due to start.

At her sentencing at Maidstone crown court on Friday (July 4), the court heard Reynolds admitted three counts of fraud and a further three counts were ordered to lie on file.

Judge Julian Smith said: ‘She had quite the network of dishonesty set up.

‘£78,000 is a lot of money and certainly a lot of money whether it’s personal or business.

‘It’s a very substantial impact and it is exploitative. She saw an opportunity and went after it again and again and again.’

He said Reynolds was ‘dishonest’ and ‘deceitful’, adding ‘she was given a fresh start and then did it again – straight away’.

Addressing Reynolds directly, Judge Smith said: ‘Having faced the victims now, reflect on what it was about you to put your selfish wishes, superficial desires above everybody else.

‘You were a fraudster. You were thieving.’

Lucy Kennedy, defending, said Reynolds is ‘mortified’ by her actions and was ‘petrified’ to face her victims in court.

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