The Stage

Theatre Royal Wakefield’s former finance manager jailed for stealing £18k from theatre

Published Tuesday 16 June 2009 at 14:10 by Lalayn Baluch

A finance manager who stole more than £18,000 from the Theatre Royal Wakefield has been sentenced to 12 months in jail.

Karen Nurse, 40, from Huddersfield, began stealing cash from Wakefield Theatre Trust last July - just four weeks after being appointed as the venue’s head of finance.

Leeds Crown Court heard how Nurse was given two passwords needed to make payments via the trust’s online banking system after the previous manager left.

Over the following six months, she made 42 fraudulent transfers to her own account totalling £18,150.

The scam was discovered after staff ordered copies of missing bank statements when Nurse went on sick leave in January. The statements revealed that a number of payments had been made to an account with the initials KPN.

West Yorkshire Police were immediately informed and conducted their own investigation, which led to the arrest of Nurse. It is understood that mother-of-two Nurse told police she was struggling with credit card and loan debts. She admitted theft.

Theatre Royal Wakefield executive director Murray Edwards said: “The trustees are extremely disappointed that any employee should behave in this manner, the first time this has occurred since the trust was formed 35 years ago.”

He explained the trust’s financial procedures had since been reviewed, and changes to tighten security had been implemented.

Edwards added: “The trust is confident that it has robust mechanisms in place at all levels of the organisation to ensure complete financial security in relation to its business.

Clare Clarkson, the venue’s operations director, has taken over management responsibility for the finance department, while Chris Bedford has been appointed to the role of finance officer.

In January this year, Paul Coxwell, a 24-year-old producer who tried to put on top West End shows by making false claims for more than £500,000 in VAT, was jailed for nine months by Kingston Crown Court.

A month later, Duncan Gillies, a box office manager at the Ambassador Theatre Group’s Comedy Theatre, admitted helping to steal £24,000 through fraudulent refunds, discounts and complimentary ticket offers.

He was sentenced to four months in prison, suspended for 18 months, and ordered to do 180 hours unpaid work and pay £10,000 compensation.