A SOCIAL media “addicted” mum who stole £300,000 from her employer to blow on TikTok “tokens” has been jailed.
Katherine Greenall was in tears in the dock yesterday as she was told she’d be locked up for pinching the vast sum from a car company where she worked as an accounts manager.
Merseyside PoliceKatherine Greenall, 29, spent a whopping £300,000 on TikTok tokens[/caption]
GettyTikTok tokens can be bought for real money and used to send creators virtual gifts[/caption]
PA:Press AssociationGreenall was sentenced at Liverpool Crown Court on Friday[/caption]
The mum-of-two, 29, spent the vast majority of the cash on TikTok tokens, which users can gift to their favourite creators.
However, the court also heard Greenall also treated herself to holidays, hotel stays and Amazon purchases during her year-long “voyage of fraud and misadventure”, reports the Manchester Evening News.
The thief claimed she now has only a few hundred pounds left in her bank account.
Liverpool Crown Court heard on Friday afternoon, Greenall began working for St Helens-based New Reg Ltd, a technology firm which specialises in purchasing vehicles for clients, in a lesser role in April 2021.
The mum, of the town’s Gloucester Street, was promoted in December 2022, giving her access to business bank accounts.
Prosecutor Christopher Taylor was considered “vital” to the growing firm and described as “both trusted and respected” before it was found she was siphoning off the funds into her own accounts.
Analysis of Greenall’s bank statements showed during 2023 she received 53 unauthorised deposits totalling £57,036 from her employer.
During this period, she also began increasing her spending at supermarkets, as well as other food outlets, sports retailers and Amazon Prime.
The court heard she also used the funds to pay for a family solicitor.
Her spree ramped up in the early months of the following year, boosting her bank balance by another £196,364.26 by April 2024.
Such large sums going missing raised suspicions amongst Greenall’s superiors and were put to the defendant in a meeting with the company director on May 1.
She pledged to investigate before making a “final deposit” of £20,000 immediately after and then left the office claiming there was an illness in her family.
Greenall would later admit criminality during a meeting six days later and she was arrested on May 13.
She told detectives she had been “living a lavish lifestyle” and had only £700 in her bank account.
The mum said initially she’d been using the stolen money to pay for household purchases before she began funding her TikTok “obsession”.
Tokens on the platform can be bought with real money and exchanged for virtual gifts that users can send to creators during live streams, which can then be exchanged back to real cash.
Greenall said the crime spree came “at a time when she was low”, the court heard.
Overall, she pinched £443,523.26 out of the company over 121 separate transactions, and spent £301,162.55 on TikTok tokens.
Her actions jeopardised the future of the firm and placed over 30 former colleagues at risk of redundancy.
Paul Becker, defending, told the court that his client “may have been suffering from a form of addiction to TikTok”, but stated that she had “no formal diagnosis to such an addiction”.
Greenall’s two children, an 11-year-old boy with severe ADHD, and a six-year-old girl, are anticipated to be looked after by their mum’s sister.
The defendant admitted one count of fraud by abuse of position and was jailed for 28 months.
One of her supporters told her “I love you” from the public gallery as Greenall was led away.
Judge Neil Flewitt KC said: “It is a tragedy that those children are going to suffer as a result of your dishonesty.
“I have taken the view that there is simply no way to avoid what I am sure you have been advised is the inevitable sentence of imprisonment.
“This is simply too much money and too much damage caused here.”
Do you know more? Email [email protected]
Published: [#item_custom_pubDate]
