Portsmouth council worker sentenced for stealing £72k to pay scammers

Amirum Begum, a former accountant for Portsmouth City Council, has been sentenced to an eight-month prison term, suspended for two years, after stealing £72,582.17 from taxpayer funds. Begum, who had worked for the council for 27 years, stole the money by recording lower rental payment amounts from council tenants and pocketing the difference. She converted the stolen funds into Amazon gift cards to disguise the theft.

The court heard that Begum’s actions were driven by coercion and intimidation following a loan scam in 2021 involving a company in Kenya. After being defrauded, she was subjected to threats and messages from the scammers, which led her to attempt to pay them off using the stolen public money.

Judge Michael Bowes KC noted that while the coercion explained her actions, it did not excuse the theft of public funds. In addition to the suspended sentence, Begum was ordered to complete 200 hours of unpaid work. Portsmouth City Council stated that the incident was investigated and referred to the police, and confirmed that tenant services were not affected.