Latest news with #StHelens-based
Scottish Sun
a day ago
- Scottish Sun
‘TikTok addicted' mum-of-two, 29, who stole £300k from her firm to spend on ‘tokens' for favourite creators is jailed
Dozens of her colleagues faced redundancy due to her thieving RABBIT HOLE 'TikTok addicted' mum-of-two, 29, who stole £300k from her firm to spend on 'tokens' for favourite creators is jailed Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) A SOCIAL media "addicted" mum who stole £300,000 from her employer to blow on TikTok "tokens" has been jailed. Katherine Greenall was in tears in the dock yesterday as she was told she'd be locked up for pinching the vast sum from a car company where she worked as an accounts manager. 3 Katherine Greenall, 29, spent a whopping £300,000 on TikTok tokens Credit: Merseyside Police 3 TikTok tokens can be bought for real money and used to send creators virtual gifts Credit: Getty 3 Greenall was sentenced at Liverpool Crown Court on Friday Credit: PA:Press Association The mum-of-two, 29, spent the vast majority of the cash on TikTok tokens, which users can gift to their favourite creators. However, the court also heard Greenall also treated herself to holidays, hotel stays and Amazon purchases during her year-long "voyage of fraud and misadventure", reports the Manchester Evening News. The thief claimed she now has only a few hundred pounds left in her bank account. Liverpool Crown Court heard on Friday afternoon, Greenall began working for St Helens-based New Reg Ltd, a technology firm which specialises in purchasing vehicles for clients, in a lesser role in April 2021. The mum, of the town's Gloucester Street, was promoted in December 2022, giving her access to business bank accounts. Prosecutor Christopher Taylor was considered "vital" to the growing firm and described as "both trusted and respected" before it was found she was siphoning off the funds into her own accounts. Analysis of Greenall's bank statements showed during 2023 she received 53 unauthorised deposits totalling £57,036 from her employer. During this period, she also began increasing her spending at supermarkets, as well as other food outlets, sports retailers and Amazon Prime. The court heard she also used the funds to pay for a family solicitor. Her spree ramped up in the early months of the following year, boosting her bank balance by another £196,364.26 by April 2024. Such large sums going missing raised suspicions amongst Greenall's superiors and were put to the defendant in a meeting with the company director on May 1. She pledged to investigate before making a "final deposit" of £20,000 immediately after and then left the office claiming there was an illness in her family. Greenall would later admit criminality during a meeting six days later and she was arrested on May 13. She told detectives she had been "living a lavish lifestyle" and had only £700 in her bank account. The mum said initially she'd been using the stolen money to pay for household purchases before she began funding her TikTok "obsession". Tokens on the platform can be bought with real money and exchanged for virtual gifts that users can send to creators during live streams, which can then be exchanged back to real cash. Greenall said the crime spree came "at a time when she was low", the court heard. Overall, she pinched £443,523.26 out of the company over 121 separate transactions, and spent £301,162.55 on TikTok tokens. Her actions jeopardised the future of the firm and placed over 30 former colleagues at risk of redundancy. Paul Becker, defending, told the court that his client "may have been suffering from a form of addiction to TikTok", but stated that she had "no formal diagnosis to such an addiction". Greenall's two children, an 11-year-old boy with severe ADHD, and a six-year-old girl, are anticipated to be looked after by their mum's sister. The defendant admitted one count of fraud by abuse of position and was jailed for 28 months. One of her supporters told her "I love you" from the public gallery as Greenall was led away. Judge Neil Flewitt KC said: "It is a tragedy that those children are going to suffer as a result of your dishonesty. "I have taken the view that there is simply no way to avoid what I am sure you have been advised is the inevitable sentence of imprisonment. "This is simply too much money and too much damage caused here." Do you know more? Email
The Irish Sun
a day ago
- The Irish Sun
‘TikTok addicted' mum-of-two, 29, who stole £300k from her firm to spend on ‘tokens' for favourite creators is jailed
A SOCIAL media "addicted" mum who stole £300,000 from her employer to blow on TikTok "tokens" has been jailed. Katherine Greenall was in tears in the dock yesterday as she was told she'd be locked up for pinching the vast sum from a car company where she worked as an accounts manager. 3 Katherine Greenall, 29, spent a whopping £300,000 on TikTok tokens Credit: Merseyside Police 3 TikTok tokens can be bought for real money and used to send creators virtual gifts Credit: Getty 3 Greenall was sentenced at Liverpool Crown Court on Friday Credit: PA:Press Association The mum-of-two, 29, spent the vast majority of the cash on TikTok tokens, which users can gift to their favourite creators. However, the court also heard Greenall also treated herself to holidays, hotel stays and Amazon purchases during her year-long "voyage of fraud and misadventure", reports the The thief claimed she now has only a few hundred pounds left in her bank account. Liverpool Crown Court heard on Friday afternoon, Greenall began working for St Helens-based New Reg Ltd, a technology firm which specialises in purchasing vehicles for clients, in a lesser role in April 2021. READ MORE NEWS The mum, of the town's Gloucester Street, was promoted in December 2022, giving her access to business bank accounts. Prosecutor Christopher Taylor was considered "vital" to the growing firm and described as "both trusted and respected" before it was found she was siphoning off the funds into her own accounts. Analysis of Greenall's bank statements showed during 2023 she received 53 unauthorised deposits totalling £57,036 from her employer. During this period, she also began increasing her spending at supermarkets, as well as other food outlets, sports retailers and Amazon Prime. Most read in The Sun The court heard she also used the funds to pay for a family solicitor. Her spree ramped up in the early months of the following year, boosting her bank balance by another £196,364.26 by April 2024. Such large sums going missing raised suspicions amongst Greenall's superiors and were put to the defendant in a meeting with the company director on May 1. She pledged to investigate before making a "final deposit" of £20,000 immediately after and then left the office claiming there was an illness in her family. Greenall would later admit criminality during a meeting six days later and she was arrested on May 13. She told detectives she had been "living a lavish lifestyle" and had only £700 in her bank account. The mum said initially she'd been using the stolen money to pay for household purchases before she began funding her TikTok "obsession". Tokens on the platform can be bought with real money and exchanged for virtual gifts that users can send to creators during live streams, which can then be exchanged back to real cash. Greenall said the crime spree came "at a time when she was low", the court heard. Overall, she pinched £443,523.26 out of the company over 121 separate transactions, and spent £301,162.55 on TikTok tokens. Her actions jeopardised the Paul Becker, defending, told the court that his client "may have been suffering from a form of addiction to TikTok", but stated that she had "no formal diagnosis to such an addiction". Greenall's two children, an 11-year-old boy with severe ADHD, and a six-year-old girl, are anticipated to be looked after by their mum's sister. The defendant admitted one count of fraud by abuse of position and was jailed for 28 months. One of her supporters told her "I love you" from the public gallery as Greenall was led away. Judge Neil Flewitt KC said: "It is a tragedy that those children are going to suffer as a result of your dishonesty. "I have taken the view that there is simply no way to avoid what I am sure you have been advised is the inevitable sentence of imprisonment. "This is simply too much money and too much damage caused here." Do you know more? Email
Daily Mirror
a day ago
- Business
- Daily Mirror
Mum of two in tears as 'TikTok addiction' sends her to prison
Katherine Greenall, 29, spent a whopping £300,000 on TikTok tokens which she went on to gift to her favourite creators after she stole it from a St Helens business A mum was left crying after her " TikTok addiction" sent her to prison. Katherine Greenall, 29, wiped away tears as she was sentenced to 28 months behind bars after stealing an estimated half-a-million pounds from her employer while she worked as an account manager for the car company. Liverpool Crown Court heard on Friday how Greenall started working for the St Helens-based New Reg Ltd as a services manager in April 2021. Greenall, of Gloucester Street in the same town, was then promoted to accounts manager in December of the following year - which gave her access to business bank accounts. Prosecutor Christopher Taylor detailed how she had been considered as a "vital part of the company's growth", "very organised and capable" and both "trusted and respected", but committed a "significant abuse of trust" in manipulating financial reports that enabled her to siphon off funds into her own accounts. An analysis of her bank statements found during 2023Greenall received a total 53 unauthorised deposits totalling £57,036 from her employer. The same period also saw a "change in her expenditure", including numerous purchases from supermarkets, food outlets, Amazon Prime and sports retailers. The mum also splashed out on family holidays and hotel bookings as well as using stolen cash to pay for a family solicitor. Greenall's criminality went on to accelerate in the early months of 2024. In January that year, she made further four deposits to the tune of £8,917, followed by 10 more in February amounting to £14,916. She went on to pocket a staggering £146,288 in 20 separate payments, which were dwarfed by another 31 transactions in April 2024, giving a £196,364 boost to her bank account. Missing sums of money started to raise suspicions among senior managers. Smaller than expected profits were raised with Greenall during an internal investigation on May 1. She pledged to investigate the matter before returning to her desk and made a "final deposit" of £20,000 into her account, citing a false family illness. Greenall would admit her criminality in another meeting on May 7 and she went on to be arrested on May 13. She claimed the deposits "started small" and that they were used to fund "household purchases." But se later admitted the money had been used to fund TikTok payments, gifting tokens to content creators on the platform. Greenall ultimately swindled a total of £443,523 from the company in 121 separate transactions. She went to spend £301,162 on TikTok tokens with the proceeds being shared between the social media platform and the content creators who got the coins between February 2024 and April 2025, Liverpoo Echo reports. Greenall had no previous convictions. Paul Becker, defending, told the court that his client "may have been suffering from a form of addiction to TikTok", but stated that she had "no formal diagnosis to such an addiction". It is believed her two children, a six-year-old girl and an 11-year-old boy with severe ADHD, will be looked after by her sister, a nursery care worker, in her absence. Mr Becker said: "This is fraud on a massive scale. It started out for personal matters. It was not TikTok initially, but it is right to say that the bulk of the fraud went towards TikTok. "It started off otherwise, and it became TikTok. It was not for any sort of financial reward. It was amusement. The more she did it, the more she became addicted to being on TikTok. What she was getting out of it was entertainment. That is what she was paying for. That is where the majority of the money was going towards. "Of course, that came from her employer who is massively out of pocket. It placed the business at risk and other members of staff in jeopardy. This was an abuse of trust on a massive scale. She is thoroughly ashamed of what she has done and has come today prepared for what might be said to be the inevitable. "She did not hold back with the police. She told them chapter and verse. It is not really rational thinking, to embark on this voyage of fraud and misadventure. What started out for her own personal benefit very quickly escalated into providing monies to TikTok. "Bringing up children is not easy. This, I am sure, had an effect on her at the time of the offending. It is perhaps some sort of insight as to why somebody embarks upon this sort of fraud. "It may be said that she was just greedy and wanted a better life and that is why she did it, but one has to have a holistic view of the factors in her life. It must have worn her down. It is not to negate what is deplorable behaviour, but she did not have an easy time. She is, if nothing else, a good mum who has done her best." Greenall admitted to one count of fraud by abuse of position. Appearing in the dock, she wiped away tears while being jailed for 28 months.
