Julie de la Cour, 58, admitted defrauding HSBC out of a total of £45,889.77 through abuse of position when she appeared before the Royal Court.
She was ordered to perform 240 hours of community service in the UK, where she now lives, as a direct alternative to 20 months in prison, and was ordered to repay all the money through the sale of her house.
Prosecuting Advocate Luke Mayer told the court how the defendant had used a corporate company card to buy things for herself and her family. These included £4,498 at restaurants and takeaways, £15,100 at supermarkets, £7,257 on Amazon, £3,106 on hotel stays and travel costs, and £13,095 at other retail outlets. She initially claimed that she had paid for trips to Jersey and Southampton as part of her role as a mental health first aider with HSBC when in some cases they had been for family reasons.
Advocate Meyer told the court how the defendant had worked for HSBC since 2004.
Her offending took place between May 2021 and June 2023 during the period when she was employed as an executive assistant to HSBC’s head of Global Private Banking for the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. Her role meant she was delegated by him to authorise corporate credit card payments by other members of staff, but a discrepancy meant that her own payments were not monitored.
In February 2023 HSBC began a review of all payments on company credit cards. De la Cour was then absent from work for 10 weeks until May 2023. In June that year, when her manager spoke to her about her suspicious credit card transactions, she initially said the payments had been done legitimately on behalf of the company, but soon admitted her guilt and tendered her resignation, citing mental health issues. She was arrested in October 2024.
Guernsey Police had to engage with more than 50 businesses as part of the investigation, and more than 50 statements were taken. It was established that in some matters De la Cour had altered documents to present her personal expenditure as legitimate HSBC transactions.
Defending, Advocate Samuel Steel the time the matter had taken to get to court had had a profound effect on his client and that had not been her fault. She had already suffered the consequences of her offending with the shame of losing her career and the loss of her home, which had been made subject to a restraining order in December last year. The sale had now gone through, with the amount owed to the bank having been ring-fenced for repayment in full following her sentencing.
The cost of housing locally meant his client had recently moved to Exeter where prices were more affordable.
It was accepted that there were aggravating factors, including a breach of trust at a financial institution.
His client had suffered long-standing mental health problems, he said, which could explain why she offended in this way.
Judge Catherine Fooks said the best mitigation in the defendant’s case was that she had no previous convictions.
There were aggravating factors though. When challenged about what she had done she initially said there had been a mistake, before admitting it when irrefutable evidence was shown to her.
The offending had taken place over a long period and had involved a breach of trust.
In deciding sentence the court had to balance the effect that sending the defendant to prison would have against the impact it would have on family members, and decided in the circumstances that the community service order was appropriate.
The court also ordered that the money must be repaid in full.