The disgraced manageress of St. Paul’s Cathedral’s gift shop, who used the church’s funds to order over £58,000 worth of stamps, before selling them for half-price on eBay, was jailed for eight months yesterday (Thursday).
Alison Robinson, 43, of Wishings Road, Brixham, Devon, placed over thirty orders for a total of 56,500 Royal Mail Worldwide stamps and continued the fraud even though a £154,000 inheritance was looming.
“This was a deliberate course of dishonesty carefully planned and deceptively executed,” Southwark Crown Court Judge Martin Beddoe told the first-time offender. “You repeated it and repeated it some thirty-odd times over eighteen months until you decided to leave your employment and move to Devon.”
Robinson pleaded guilty to dishonestly obtaining Worldwide postage stamps, worth £58,289.15, from the Royal Mail with the intention of permanently depriving the Friends of St. Paul’s by deception by falsely representing she was entitled to order them between February 5 and May 22, 2007.
Prosecutor Miss Sarah Selby told the court Robinson left St. Paul’s (pictured) in June, 2007 following eighteen years unblemished service for the ‘Friends of St. Paul’s’ shop and the new manager, Duncan Smith, ordered a yearly stock take.
“He found various substantial discrepancies in the accounts,” she explained.
“Large amounts of the Worldwide stamps had been purchased by the shop and invoices signed by Mrs. Robinson,” said Miss Selby. “These stamps were ordered and paid for by the shop, but not sold in the shop.”
It was discovered Robinson had placed telephone orders for Worldwide stamps along with the shop’s usual order for postcard stamps and deliberately omitted the fact from internal paperwork.
“When they arrived she placed them in a safe and then took them away,” added the prosecutor. “She admits she noticed the stamps sold on eBay before that and banked the cash in her maiden name.”
St. Paul’s hired a retired senior Fraud Squad detective, Patrick Wilkins, to investigate and he quizzed Robinson on November 15, 2008 at the new Devon home she had bought for £158,000 cash and shared with her new husband – a former cathederal colleague.
“She briefly denied knowledge of the stamps, but in a matter of minutes admitted she had been responsible for the theft of stamps,” said Miss Selby.
“She claimed she sold them to friends, but then admitted she sold them on eBay for half of their value. She was clearly shocked and said half-price was a reasonable assessment.”
Robinson claimed she was kept a virtual “prisoner” for 20 years by her “domineering” wheelchair-bound mother who died in April, 2006, followed by her father six weeks later.
“She said she had spent the money on household items that had assisted the care of her parents, beds etc. and had funded the funeral costs and felt unsupported by her employers.”
Robinson recently sold her house for £122,000 so she can compensate St. Paul’s and immediately wrote a letter of apology to the Dean.
Her lawyer Miss Dafna Spiro told the court: “This is so out of character. She is a person who gave to others, but internalised everything, hence the binge eating.
“It became like a gambling addiction, a compulsion and was the only thing that took her mind off the awfulness that was around her.
“She suffered a miscarriage in 2003, that was the first trigger. That was her only experience of pregnancy and she is unlikely now to have children.
“Her mother was domineering and oppressive in the extreme. She was not allowed to move away for a job aged 20 and spent the next twenty years at home caring for her parents although they were difficult.
“She had to stay with her mother every night and was not allowed out and was kept a virtual prisoner in this home until her release.
“She spent the money to make her parents’ lives more comfortable in a parental feeling of obligation,” added miss Spiro.
“It is an aberration. Something she is mortified about. She explains it as the escape from the horrifickness of her life.”
Once her parents passed away Robinson was free to marry an older man, who they had disapproved of, quit St. Paul’s and start a new life in Devon.
Robinson, who is on anti-depressants, will struggle in prison, added Miss Spiro. “This woman will be traumatised by a custodial sentence.”
Judge Beddoe announced: “This was obtained by deception by her ordering them in the first place and then removing them from the premises. It’s not taking money out of the till, but setting up a process that allows her to take out of the till.
“She chose a product that she knew she could sell elsewhere and stole it,” added the Judge. “To the detriment of her employers’ she exploited that trust through dishonesty.”
The Judge rejected Robinson’s family background as an excuse. “You deliberately embarked on a system of dishonesty of your own design on a product of value,” he told her.
“Your position of trust allowed you to order matters not kept in stock which were then delivered to the premises where you got your hands on it and sold it on eBay for your own gain.
“I can’t see this offending was for anyone’s benefit, but your own.” Added Judge Beddoe.
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