Tuesday, February 18

Day: December 5, 2015

Finance officer stole from council to fund five star wedding
London

Finance officer stole from council to fund five star wedding

    A London council worker has been jailed for embezzling nearly half a million pounds of public money to fund a grand wedding and honeymoon, as well as paying off her mortgage. Ceyda Elkatme, 34, of Waltham Forest, exploited her position as a finance officer for Haringey Council to make fraudulent payments to seven accomplices for adult care services that were never delivered. In total, she paid them more than £466,000, which they then transferred into Elkatme's or her husband's account, after taking a cut for themselves. "This was a despicable crime where Elkatme abused her position as a finance officer to defraud Haringey Council out of well over £450,000 of what was effectively public money," says Haringey Borough superintendent Amanda Dellar. "Working with her husband an...