Chartered accountant Kirsty Payne has been jailed for 18 months for defrauding her employer to fund a ski holiday in the French Alps.
Payne, who worked at Marshall Thermo King, based in Cambridge, and was reportedly on a salary of £80,000.
In February 2025 she ran a payment of £400,410 through the system from various suppliers, but £40,383 was paid into one of Payne’s family member accounts.
The financial discrepancy wasn’t spotted until a few months later by a routine internal audit.
She originally claimed to Police the money was for a sick relative’s medical care, but later admitted it was for a fancy family ski trip! Payne said the theft was “spur of the moment” and claimed she was having money troubles. It didn’t help her case that the ski trip was all over her Facebook page.
A previous conviction for false representation was taken into account for sentencing.
Payne was disqualified from being a company director until February 2036 after raising false invoices of £327,000 while she was finance director of marketing company called Media Matters (Peterborough) Limited.
Companies House records reveal that the company went into liquidation in 2023, owing more than £1.3m, including £685,770 owed to HMRC, £177,193 to trade and expense creditors, and £98,514 in bank loans.
