‘Hard-working’ payroll employee siphoned £22,000 from Wakefield flooring firm for spending sprees at Argos and eBay

Part of Sadie Lodge’s job at flooring firm Airea PLC was to prepare spreadsheets for staff payments until bosses noticed names in the report that “should not have been there”, Leeds Crown Court heard.

Upon closer inspection, it was found that the bank details for the names could all be linked back to Lodge. Occurring between January and March 2020, payments directed to her account stretched from £150 to £5,244.

In total she had defrauded the company, based at Victoria Mills in Ossett, of £22,508. She made payment to Wakefield Council to pay her rent, while the company credit card was used to buy goods with various online accounts at Argos, eBay and Virgin Media.

Lodge, of Dacre Avenue, Lupset, Wakefield, admitted fraud and an offence of stalking linked to her partner’s ex partner. Lodge had sent messages, made false complaints to social services and damaged her car.

Lodge has 13 convictions for 20 previous offences, from 2008 to 2021, including fraud.

Mitigating, Matthew Harding said of the recent fraud charge: “It wasn’t a particularly sophisticated offence, it was relatively straightforward to identify her as the individual. She is trying to turn her life around. She is able and can be a hard-working woman.”

The case was opened on Thursday, but Judge Robin Mairs said he needed time to consider Lodge’s sentence, so remanded her into custody.

He told a tearful Lodge today: “You richly deserve to go back to HMP New Hall. That’s what prison is like, you have had four days of it. If you breach the order I give you, I will, without hesitation, send you back to New Hall.

"If you stick your hand in the till of any new company, you will comeback before me and go back to New Hall.”

He described the stalking behaviour as “disturbing” but said of the fraud: “This was not a spur-of-the-moment offence, it was calculated. You doctored those spread sheets so you could take away £22,508.”

He gave Lodge a 20-month jail sentence, suspended for 24 months, 200 hours of unpaid work and gave her a restraining order of indeterminate length.