KIRSTY PAYNE JAILED AFTER STEALING £40,000 FOR SKI TRIP

A chartered accountant has been jailed after defrauding her employer of more than £40,000 and spending it on a skiing holiday in the French Alps, Cambridgeshire Police said. Kirsty Payne worked at commercial vehicle dealer Marshall Thermo King, trading as Marshall Fleet Solutions, in Cambridge. Police said that in February 2025 she processed a payment of £400,410 through the firm's systems for various suppliers, £40,383 more than was owed. The extra money was paid into a family member's account, and the discrepancy was spotted in April, the force said.

Payne had been signed off work with a doctor's note dated 30 March, citing declining mental health, police said. During a wellbeing check with the company's head of HR, she admitted fraudulently taking the money and resigned. She initially said the money had funded a family member's medical treatment, but later told police she had spent it on the ski trip. Cambridgeshire Police said Payne had a previous conviction for fraud by false representation, and that she told officers she had money troubles despite earning about £80,000 a year.

Payne pleaded guilty to one count of fraud by false representation at Cambridge Magistrates' Court, police said. She was jailed for one year and six months at Peterborough Crown Court on 10 September, with 10 months imposed for the fraud and the remainder for breaching a suspended sentence for a previous, similar offence. Detective Constable Valentin Radulescu, who investigated, said Payne had given little thought to the impact of defrauding her employer and that reoffending had been viewed negatively by the courts, resulting in a sentence she had initially avoided. He said he hoped her time in custody would prompt reflection and serve as a warning to others considering fraud.