Designer clothes bought by a Lichfield woman who had wrongly been given £50,000 are being auctioned online.
Michaela Elaine Hutchings was convicted of dishonestly retaining a wrongful credit and sentenced in April to a 12 months supervision order with 150 hours unpaid work by a judge at Stafford Crown Court.
The conviction came after £52,127.40 had been put in her bank account by Lichfield District Council – but £51,821.34 of it should have been paid to Bromford Housing Association.
In two days Hutchings spent more than £7,000 of the money – almost £5,000 buying luxury goods by Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Ralph Lauren and Dior amongst other brands.
She gave £1,000 to her family and spent £1,093.55 paying off her outstanding Court fines.
In addition to her spending she opened a savings account and transferred £40,000 to this account.
All but two of the designer items have been recovered – and the clothes are now being sold online by Staffordshire Police in a bid to recoup some of the £51,006.55 confiscation order.
A spokesperson for the police said: “All of these items are genuine purchased at full retail price in High Street Stores and were seized the day after purchase.”
I’d put in a bid but I’m a bit short this week after Lichfield District Council stolen from my account.