Last Updated on: 16th November 2022, 07:40 am
Who is Fiona Barclay? Biography, Wiki
Fiona Barclay, a pregnant former Manchester City executive who stole more than £100,000 from the club to pay for her wedding, has been jailed.
Ms. Barclay worked as a business development manager for Man City at the football club’s hospitality department, earning up to £30,000 a year. Today, she was sentenced to 18 months in jail after being caught defrauding cash from the club.
Fiona Barclay Age
Her current age is 33 years.
Ex-Manchester City Executive Stole £100k To Pay For Wedding
After being discovered, she told police she’d used her ill-gotten gains to pay for her wedding and buy ‘gifts’ for her husband and family.
Barclay, from Scotland, wept during the hearing before she was sent to prison. Manchester Crown Court heard that Barclay was rumbled after accountants flagged a suspicious transaction when a refund of £25,000 had been issued in March last year.
Prosecuting, Ellen Shaw said it aroused suspicion ‘by the fact it was a large round number’. Barclay was questioned, and she admitted she’d made an ‘error’ and apologized. She admitted depositing £15,000 of the sum into her bank account and paying it back to the club.
But the club investigated further and discovered that Barclay had been siphoning money from the club since June 2019. In total, she stole more than £104,000. The city remains £89,000 out of pocket after Barclay paid back the £15,000.
Police Investigation Report
She faced internal disciplinary proceedings at the club and was sacked in March last year. After a criminal investigation was launched, she told police she’d used the cash to pay for “various parts of her wedding and for buying gifts for her husband and family”. She pleaded guilty to an offense of fraud by abuse of position. Defending, Patrick Buckley appealed for Barclay to be spared from being sent to prison.
He said that Barclay had moved from her home in Scotland to take the job and had become isolated. He said: ‘It seems that being hundreds and hundreds of miles away from home, isolated and lonely, solace was sought in retail therapy.
“The problem was that the retail therapy was at the expense of her employer,” Mr. Buckley said Barclay was utterly disgusted with herself.
He added: “There is nothing in terms of reason or logical reason why she did what she did,” the barrister added; “It must have been inevitable that she would eventually be caught.”
