Film producer who fleeced production firm out of £40,000 to blow on luxury holidays, spa treatments and hair extensions is spared jail
Natalie Tither admitted defrauding online advertising firm Casual Films
A FILM producer who fleeced a production company out of £40,000 and blew it on luxury foreign holidays, spa treatments and hair extensions sobbed as she was spared jail today.
Natalie Tither, 30, abused a company credit card while working at Casual Films which makes online adverts for Nestlé, Barclays and Samsung.
She used the card to buy gifts and holidays and posted Facebook selfies from glamorous destinations including a sun-drenched beach and the Colosseum in Rome.
She also splashed out on clothes and nights out with friends and took 322 Uber journeys on the company account, a court heard.
And she used the card to buy herself furniture, which she put in storage then paid for a removal firm to take it to her new home all at her employers' expense.
Today she wept in the dock as judge Steven Gasztowicz QC gave her a suspended sentence and told her: "Your professional career one would imagine in the film industry will be over."
An earlier court hearing heard the total of her fraud was estimated at between £60,000 and £70,000.
Tither admitted fraud by abuse of position but claimed she only nicked around £36,000 in a spending spree between January and November 2016.
Prosecutors said it was far higher at least £46,000 on the card plus a further £10,000 splurged on taxis and other spending.
Today in a last minute deal, prosecution and defence lawyers agreed on a figure of £40,000.
Before she was sentenced her former boss Nick Francis, founder of award-winning Casual Films, told the court he was forced to make members of staff redundant as a result of Tither's scam.
He said: "Miss Tither was one of our highest paid members of staff but not satisfied with this she continued to lie and steal for her own gain.
"She lied to our faces, she lied on the phone, she lied in emails and she even lied on our holiday booking system.
"It's heartbreaking to see the result of so much work by so many people wiped out by one selfish individual."
Prosecutor Babatunde Alabi said Tither was issued the card to pay for props and travel an hotel expenses on shoots outside London.
He fraud was uncovered when she claimed took an Uber to a meeting with accountancy firm PwC.
When the firm queried its account it was found she had made hundreds of other journeys without authorisation, most to her home in Brixton, South London.
She also made several cash withdrawals for hundreds of pounds on days she was on annual leave.
Mr Alabi said: "She was off on sick leave from October 13 to 21 and spent £1,600 on the company credit card."
She also used the card while on holiday in Italy, the court heard.
Amiot Vollenweider, defending, claimed Tither's colleagues would take props and other company items home so she "started by taking personal taxis after work".
The barrister said Tither started spending on the card because she was involved in a "good relationship" with a man and did not want it to end.
The indictment said Tither had committed the fraud "intending thereby to make a gain, namely you bought goods and holidays, for yourself and Nick Tanda" — although the exact nature of the relationship between her and Mr Tanda was not specified.
Tither was handed a two year jail term, suspended for two years, and ordered to carry out 275 hours of unpaid work.
She will also be subject to a curfew each night at her parents' home in Wigan, where she will return after selling her home in Brixton.
Casual Films, based in Canonbury in North London, has won awards for its work for Friends of the Earth, Rolls-Royce and accountancy giant PwC.
Other clients include Vodafone, Nestlé, Barclays, Samsung and Ernst and Young.
In May an office manager who spent £38,000 on holidays and clothes on a company credit card was spared jail by a judge in London who admitted: "I hate sending women to prison."
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