Primary school receptionist, 41, is jailed for 10 months after stealing £25,000

A primary school receptionist has been jailed for 10 months after stealing £25,000 which she then spent on clothes and hotel stays.

Gillian Turton, 41, abused her position to pocket funds children aged between 4-11 had raised for charity as well as money parents had sent in to pay for school trips.

Liverpool Crown Court heard the mother of two spent her takings, acquired between 2016 and 2018, on lavish shopping sprees.

Appearing in the dock last week, Turton was sentenced to ten months behind bars after admitting theft by employee and 10 counts of fraud.

The court heard she was employed as finance manager at St Basil’s Catholic Primary School, Widnes, before taking over the role of office manager in January 2015.

While in that position, over the course of two and half years, Turton swiped cash and forged the head’s signature in order to make out cheques for herself.

It was only when she left her post in March last year the school’s head teacher Angela Sheppard discovered irregularities in the school’s accounts.

A police investigation found Turton pinched money raised for charity by pupils, funds generated for after-school clubs and cash paid by parents for school trips.

The total sum of her takings amounted to £24,126.

Judge Flewitt, sentencing, said: ‘You were a trusted and capable member of the senior management team.

‘You should have put your talents to the benefit of the school community but you didn’t.

‘You betrayed the high degree of trust that had been placed in you by anybody with whom and for whom your worked.

‘Over a significant period of time, you stole money that should have gone to the benefit of pupils at that school.

‘It is difficult to understand why you were doing that.

‘There are cases where appropriate punishment can only be achieved by an immediate custodial sentence, and I regret to say that this is one such case.

‘I would be failing in my public duty if I did not send out the message that this sort of offending can’t be tolerated.

‘I see no alternative but the imposition of an immediate custodial sentence.’

Turton, who has no previous convictions, was in tears in the dock as she was jailed.

The court heard she was employed as finance manager at St Basil’s Catholic Primary School, Widnes, (pictured) before taking over the role of office manager in January 2015

Head teacher Ms Sheppard told the court: ‘She thoroughly abused her position of trust.

‘The school serves a disadvantaged community and this crime significantly reduces the capacity of the school to meet the needs of all pupils – especially our most disadvantaged.

‘She had both my personal and professional confidence and trust.

‘As a Christian, I believe mutual trust, care and respect underpins human relationships.

‘When this trust is abused, it is hard to move forwards. These actions have cast very long shadows.’