By Phil Coleman

Last updated at 11:37, Monday, 27 July 2009

A JUDGE has jailed a 54-year-old west Cumbrian woman who posed as a credit union collector to steal from unsuspecting savers, including three elderly women.

‘You are a thoroughly dishonest woman’ Hazel Fidoe pretended to be collecting for credit union

One of Hazel Fidoe’s four victims was 80-year-old Distington woman Sarah Scott, who put aside more than £3,000 to pay for her own funeral.

At Carlisle Crown Court yesterday, Judge Peter Hughes QC told Fidoe, who has previous convictions for fraud: “In my view, you are a thoroughly dishonest woman.

“These were particularly mean offences. You deceived these ladies, three of them elderly, to part with sums of money believing you to be a genuine authorised collector on behalf of Workington and District Credit Union.

“They trusted you with their money.”

The judge went on to say that background reports showed how Fidoe, of High Road, Kells, had tried to minimise her offences.

Commenting on the anger directed at Fidoe by local people, the judge added: “You have to understand the sense of betrayal that this sort of behaviour engenders.”

An earlier hearing was told how the defendant began stealing after the credit union had closed its cash collection point in Distington in 2006.

Though no longer an official collector, Fidoe continued to take money from the four women and pocket it for herself.

One was aged 57, and the other three were 72, 77 and 80-year-old Mrs Scott.

The total creamed off by Fidoe was £4,500 but the court heard that she managed to repay Mrs Scott in cash after her arrest in February.

During the earlier hearing, it emerged Fidoe was convicted in 1992 of false accounting and obtaining services by deception.

In the latest case, she pleaded guilty to 12 offences of making false representations, with 140 similar offences to be taken into consideration.

Greg Hoare, for Fidoe, said his client was bitterly disappointed with herself.

“She knows that she has let down others who had put significant trust in her – trust which she will never be able to recapture.”

Judge Hughes jailed Fidoe for six months.

She will serve half that term before being eligible for release on licence.

The judge made no order for compensation after pointing out that Fidoe was not in a position to pay up.

First published at 11:36, Monday, 27 July 2009
Published by http://www.whitehavennews.co.uk