Pathological liar jailed over £1m Yorkshire council swindle

A “PATHOLOGICALLY dishonest” parish council clerk behind a £1m fraud has been jailed for eight years.
Janet Cooper.Janet Cooper.
Janet Cooper.

Janet Cooper only held the clerk’s job at Brierley Town Council, near Barnsley, for three years but from day one began pocketing money, acquiring a total of £295,296 she siphoned off from £695,000 public works loans she dishonestly obtained.

When her offending was uncovered she claimed to be blind and said she had no memory of events. The convicted fraudster – once the subject of a Channel 4 documentary – carried a white stick and wore black glasses.

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As she was sentenced at Sheffield Crown Court yesterday the glasses were absent but she still had her white stick.

After the hearing investigating officer Det Sgt Stuart Hall said, however: “There is no medical evidence to substantiate her blindness or memory loss.”

Cooper frittered away the stolen cash on Mediterranean cruises, holidays in Devon, a £21,000 Volvo and offered £375,000 cash on a four-bedroom bungalow. She even splashed out £3,500 for a box at West Ham United for the council staff to see Barnsley play and also claimed she was a Channel swimmer – collecting sponsorship from unsuspecting punters.

In truth she is “pathologically dishonest” said Judge Peter Kelson yesterday as he sentenced her on four counts of fraud and one of theft.

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The court heard she had been jailed for 15 months at Basildon Crown Court in 1999 for theft and false accounting and in September 2003 for three years at Leicester for stealing £800,000 from her then employer.

On her release she lied on her application form and got her £20,000-a-year job at Brierley Town Council.

Her offences were only uncovered when she went into hospital for a brain tumour operation and a replacement finance officer began investigating.

Four council jobs had to be axed, services cut and 5,000 council taxpayers faced increased charges as a result of her offending.

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The council is now £1.3m in debt and has had to take out a £480,000 emergency Government-sanctioned loan to pay recurring annual loan charges of £44,000.

It is estimated the case has cost the taxpayer £100,000 in court costs, the police £75,000 to investigate and another £25,000 for the finance officer.

Cooper staged the fraud by forging councillors’ signatures on documents and falsifying the minutes of meetings to apply for loans. None of the councillors or officials had any knowledge of her offending.

She changed her plea to guilty to five charges on the second day of her trial. The jury was discharged after returning formal guilty verdicts.

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Her only defence was loss of memory and Ian Goldsack, prosecuting, told the court a number of specialists had examined her and “there were doubts to say the least about the truthfulness of her medical condition”.

Cooper, 51, of Wadsley Lane, Sheffield admitted dishonestly abusing her position by obtaining loans of £350,000, £152,500, and £66,000 from the Public Works Loan Board and a further loan of £127,000 without authority in 2008 and 2009. She also admitted theft of £295,296 belonging to Brierley Town Council between November 1, 2006 when she first started and when her service ended on December 31, 2009.

Cooper maintained they were grants but in fact they were loans, said Mr Goldsack, which had serious consequences for the council.

“It has meant significant cuts to services and people losing their jobs and an increase in taxes payable by the local community to try and cover the costs,” he said.

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Cheques totaling nearly £300,000 were either drawn or transferred from the council’s bank accounts by Cooper in her own name or that of her husband. She also falsified a large number of invoices.

Her barrister Andrew Smith said: “This is a lady with complex psychological and personality issues.”

Judge Kelson told her: “The dishonesty involved was persistent at a time when many in this country are thankful for a job. Your salary wasn’t enough for you and so you deceived your employers in a sophisticated and complex way.”

He went on: “But for your ill-health you would have taken more and more and more.”

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Former Mayor of Brierley Patrick Doyle said in a statement that the case had been a disaster for the council, adding: “Everyone in the community is a victim of this situation for at least the next 20 years.”