Cancer charity fraudster stole £225k, judge rules

A fundraiser who admitted defrauding a cancer charity of £6,000 actually stole more than £225,000 in donations, a judge has ruled.

Jane Brookes, of Patch Street, Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, pleaded guilty on Monday to taking £6,000 donated by bereaved families to Cancer Research UK over 10 years.

After a Newton hearing at Worcester Crown Court, Judge Nicholas Cartwright ruled on Thursday that the 54-year-old stole £226,557 while chairing a local fundraising committee for the charity.

Ms Brookes will be sentenced at the same court on 25 April.

The Newton hearing, to decide the facts of the case, was held in front of Judge Cartwright to consider the difference between the two sums.

Brookes' lawyer said she took the money because she was under pressure from a boyfriend.

Judge Cartwright said a modest sum of money was spent on pizza and Brookes had paid for three riding lessons.

She also made purchases at Morrisons, WH Smith and at a petrol station, he added.

Judge Cartwright said:" I reject the explanation for accidental use of the card for riding lessons because if it had been a genuine mistake, the money would have been repaid immediately.

"I reject that her boyfriend had access to the money.

"Even the most naïve person in Jane Brookes' position would have made sure that they kept receipts and a record of these disbursements for Cancer Research headquarters.

"I'm driven to the inescapable conclusion that it was her removing the money."

Defence barrister Tom Kenning said his client admitted "she was mostly disorganised, not dishonest".

The court heard how Ms Brookes' "unhappy home life" and "many serious health problems" took a toll on her.

"She let things slip at that point in her life...it was falling apart," Mr Kenning said.

Prosecutors said Ms Brookes abused her position as the unpaid chair of a committee in Rubery by using a charity bank account, opened in 2012, for personal expenses.

The court previously heard how donations sent by hundreds of bereaved families through funeral undertakers should have been transferred from the Lloyds Bank account in Bromsgrove to Cancer Research UK's head office.

The fraud was uncovered in 2021 when a bereaved relative asked why their donation had not been acknowledged and, when police investigated in November that year, only 47 pence remained.

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