Charity worker cleared of theft
A PART time hospital charity worker who was cleared of stealing £1,300 said after the case that she bore no malice.Jane Symes hugged her supporters outside court after yesterday's verdicts and said: "The truth has come out.
A PART time hospital charity worker who was cleared of stealing £1,300 said after the case that she bore no malice.
Jane Symes hugged her supporters outside court after yesterday's verdicts and said: "The truth has come out. I just want to say thank you to God and that I don't bare any malice to anyone".
Ms Symes, 40, of Foxhall Road, Ipswich, had denied three charges of theft involving £1,287 from the League of Friends of Ipswich Hospital.
During a trial at Ipswich Crown Court it was alleged that while working as public relations and marketing co-ordinator for the charity she failed to bank £77 from a street collection, £960 raised at a dinner and £250 from a garden party.
Ms Symes admitted to the court that she had debts of £25,000 at the time of the offences but denied stealing the money.
She claimed that she had given the money from the street collection and the money raised at the dinner to League of Friends Chairman, Patricia Salisbury.
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She described Mrs Salisbury, who denied being given the money by her, as being forgetful.
Ms Symes told the court that she didn't think the money had been stolen. "I genuinely believe it has been mislaid or thrown away," she said.
In relation to the £250 raised for the charity at a garden party, Ms Symes claimed she had given the money to her au pair to pay into the bank while she waited outside in her car.
She said the au pair had given her a slip of paper when she got back into the car but this had been mislaid.
Asked why the bank had no record of the money being paid in Ms Symes said that it could have been paid into the wrong account.