Francisca Yawson, 37, was blasted by the judge, saying children may have gone hungry after she stole almost £100,000 that could have been spent on helping the homeless and food banks
A church worker has been spared jail after she stole nearly £100,000 that could have been used to support the homeless and food banks.
A judge blasted Francisca Yawson, 37, saying children may have gone hungry “while you were helping yourself to a high lifestyle” on the stolen funds.
Yawson worked as a gift aid and operations technician for the Diocese of Westminster division of the Roman Catholic Church between September 2018 and August 2019, Southwark Crown Court heard.
Over the time the mum-of-four made nine bank transfers to herself. She previously pleaded guilty to nine counts of theft and today appeared for sentencing at the Southwark court.
Judge Mark Weekes said: “All in all, you were funding yourself to a reasonably good standard of lifestyle – grossly and dishonestly.”
The judge told Yawson that the money could have been used to help the homeless and families fed through food banks, adding that it would be on her “conscience” that children may have gone hungry “while you were helping yourself to a high lifestyle”.
He blasted a “shocking” delay in the case coming to justice, after police wrongfully closed the investigation between 2021 and 2025. He said this meant the case had had a “different outcome,” as he sentenced Yawson to two years in prison, suspended for two years.
The judge said had sentencing for her “meanness and selfishness” taken place in 2019 or 2020, she would likely have been jailed.
He told her that she was “lucky because of the passage of time”, urging her to reflect on “the very real damage you caused to people less fortunate than you”.
The court heard a statement, submitted from Nicholas Seed, the chief financial officer for the diocese. He said it was “upsetting” that money which could have been used to help families fed through food banks and the homeless had been stolen.
He said: “The harm caused by (Yawson’s) actions therefore reverberates beyond this courtroom to every corner of our community.”
Yarson’s thefts started with a £247 payment she made to herself and escalated to a single transfer of almost £20,000 – amounting to a total of more than £96,000, the court heard.
Prosecutors told how she disguised her actions on the diocese’s records, although dates and amounts matched transfers to her personal accounts.
Yawson, of Stonebridge Park in Brent, north-west London, used the money mostly for “day-to-day” things, the court heard.
She had transferred £8,500 of the stolen money to Jamaica to help support her ill grandmother, the defendant said.
Ryan Evans, defending, said that Yawson had lost her employment and was on universal credit.
Mr Evans said that Yawson had found the stress of the proceedings, combined with having a newborn child, “very difficult”.
Judge Weekes ordered her to pay £1,000, carry out 150 hours of unpaid work and 15 hours of a rehabilitation requirement.
