£30,000 hospital thief is jailed for two years

FORMER Board of Health employee Sarah Young was yesterday sent to prison for two years for stealing more than £30,000 from the Princess Elizabeth Hospital. But the Royal Court heard that she still denied committing 10 thefts, between 5 April 2001 and 6 March 2002, when she worked there as a dining room supervisor and would be appealing against the conviction.

The maximum sentence for theft that a Guernsey court can impose is 10 years - in England, it has been reduced to seven.

Last month, 10 jurats unanimously found 10 counts of theft against her proved at the end of a seven-day trial.

The case exposed serious flaws in the board's banking system at the PEH at the time of the offences - it took 11 months for staff to notice that large sums were missing.

Yesterday, in sentencing, the court acknowledged the extremely lax financial controls and flawed system.

'You took advantage of it,' Deputy Bailiff Geoffrey Rowland told Young.

The court considered that the thefts were 'substantial' and noted the trust that had been placed in her by her employer.

Her offences had caused suspicion to fall on her work colleagues, both junior and senior, the court heard.

'The court views your offending very seriously,' said Mr Rowland, who stressed that it was not easy to ascertain a starting point for sentencing in dishonesty cases.

The court was keen to send out the message that this sort of behaviour would not be tolerated and its disapproval of the way she had tried to implicate other members of staff.

In mitigation, Advocate Christopher Green had said that the matter had taken a long time to come to trial, which had adversely affected his client.

Young was suspended by the board in March 2002 and dismissed in August 2002. After being first charged with theft in March 2003, she appeared before the Royal Court in January of this year.

But counsel apportioned no blame for the delay on the prosecution, which had to conduct a lengthy and detailed investigation.

Advocate Green submitted several mitigating factors on behalf of Young, 33, of 1, Strathmore House, The Grange, St Peter Port, who had a good academic record.

She had no previous convictions and was of previous good character; references from four employers, who thought highly of her, labelled her trustworthy, reliable, honest, punctual and hard-working; her father died from a heart attack shortly after her arrest and she believed she had contributed in some way to his death; her mother had become ill; going to prison could have an adverse effect on her husband; and she had a consistent work record and had been working fairly antisocial hours on reduced income since being sacked. The risk of Young reoffending was low, he added.

'There are extenuating circumstances, which arise from her personal life, which would justify a suspended sentence,' submitted counsel, who asked for leniency.

After deliberating for more than an hour, the Jurats considered 30 months to be a starting point before mitigation.

The court noted her previously impeccable character, delays in the case coming to court - which it did not criticise - and that although she was working under considerable pressure, she had diligently discharged her duties previously and that colleagues had spoken well of her.

The Deputy Bailiff told her that this was not a case after which she would never find employment, but perhaps not in a supervisory role involving financial dealings. But she had disgraced herself, her husband and her family.

Young was sentenced to two years in prison on each count, to run concurrently.

The board has consequently taken steps to tighten cash-handling procedures in its hospitals.