A pair of sisters who used an elaborate swindle to con the taxpayer out of almost £450,000 while running Girl Guide groups have been jailed.
Sara Barnbrook, 54, and younger sibling Jean, 51, embarked on a jet-set lifestyle after claiming Gift Aid donations for their network of groups.
The pair submitted £1.9million worth of false claims using the names of volunteers, who had no idea of the “sophisticated” scam.
Leeds Crown Court heard this enabled them to receive £446,000 from the government’s Gift Aid scheme, which allows charities to claim an extra 25% from the taxman, over six years.
They then abused their position as signatories to transfer that money into their own private bank accounts or withdrew it as cash.
But they were rumbled when Jean Barnbrook called her bank to chase up a Gift Aid payment for a Girl Guides group which had been closed down 18 months earlier, sparking an HMRC investigation.
The court heard the crooked duo – who ran two Girl Guide groups and a Brownie group – enjoyed luxury holidays and spent thousand on improvements to their Leeds home.
Sara Barnbrook was jailed for three years after pleading guilty to cheating the public revenue, whilst her sibling was jailed for two and a half years after admitting money laundering.
Angus MacDonald, prosecuting, told how the the sisters made the fraudulent claims between 2013 and 2019 before being caught.
Over £235,000 was paid into the Jean Barnbrook’s account with around £86,000 siphoned into Sara’s, who was described as “the driving force” behind the scam.
A further £125,000 was cashed from fraudulent cheques.
Mr MacDonald said Sara Barnbrook spent £24,000 on luxury items, £20,000 on clothes and £20,000 on leisure whilst Jean blew £67,000 on luxury items, £40,000 on home improvements and £30,000 on hotel stays.
He said: “The fraud was so brazen that some payments were sought after relevant girl guide units had been shut down.”
In mitigation the court was told the sisters, who lived together, had grown up in poverty at their family home and were saddled with inherited debt after their mother’s death.
Anastasis Tasou, defending Sara, said she started the scam “to bring her standard of living to that which most of us take for granted.”
He told the court she’d previously had given “30 years of devoted, voluntary service” to the Girl Guides.
Glenn Parsons, for Jean, said she was “totally dependent on her sister” and was described by a psychology report as being submissive and compliant.
Jailing them, Judge Mushtaq Khokhar said: “This was a fraud against the public purse. People – such as yourselves – who commit these offences do so out of greed.”
Tim Atkins from the HMRC’s fraud investigation service, said: “These sisters stole money that was supposed to support genuine charities and they used it to fund a lifestyle they could not legitimately afford.
“Tax fraud is not a victimless crime. It has real consequences for the public services we all rely on and we encourage anyone with information about any type of tax fraud or money laundering to report it online.”
