Esher school fraudster ordered to pay back £380k

A woman who was jailed after embezzling from the school she worked in has been ordered to pay back more than £380,000.

Debra Poole, of Surbiton, stole more than £700,000 from Hinchley Wood Primary School in Esher, Surrey, while working as a business manager between 2009 and 2018.

Poole was jailed for six-and-a-half years in March 2023 after being convicted of four counts of fraud.

She was ordered to sell her house and pay the amount within three months at a hearing at Kingston Crown Court on Tuesday.

As a signatory to the school's wraparound care club, Woody's, Poole transferred funds, wrote herself cheques and cashed cheques amounting to £490,000.

She increased her pay by submitting paperwork to Surrey County Council payroll team on two occasions in 2009 and 2011.

Poole also claimed she was working 30 hours a week for two years at Woody's as an administrator.

Surrey Police said she embezzled a total of £535,770.82, which rises to £708,267.02 when adjusted for inflation.

The force said if Poole does not repay £380,884.28 to Hinchley Wood School within three months, she has to reapply to extend the order or face a jail sentence of three years and eight months.

Det Insp Charley Bryant from Surrey Police's Economic Crime Unit, said: "This gross breach of trust and her elaborate deception spanning some nine years funded an extravagant lifestyle and afforded her luxury holidays and cars which she would not otherwise have been able to afford.

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