LONDON, England, Wednesday July 18, 2018 – A Trinidadian-born woman has been jailed in the United Kingdom for defrauding a charity  she worked for of just over US$1 million.

Nadia Deone Chase Ali, 35 was sentenced to six years in prison after being convicted of fraud by abuse of position, theft and removing money from England and Wales.

Ali was employed as a financial officer with Carnival Village Trust (CVT). She then went on to work freelance for the organisation, holding a position of trust in which she was expected to safeguard the financial interests of the charity.

Over the course of two years, Chase Ali made 530 separate payments totalling £784,262.56 (US$ 1.02 million) from CVT and TW11’s bank accounts into four of her own accounts. She disguised those transactions as payments to legitimate suppliers, service providers and government organisations, prosecutors said.

To conceal the theft, she stole a significant number of financial documents, including outstanding invoices, payments demand letters and financial statements, from the charity and company. These were found at her home address when she was arrested on March 16, 2017.

Investigators said Ali provided no explanation in an interview for the fraud or documents found at her home. She was charged seven months after arrest, and on day two of her trial which began on June 11 in the Isleworth Crown Court, she changed her plea for two counts – fraud by abuse of position and removal of criminal property out of England and Wales. She continued to plead not guilty to theft of the financial documents from the Tabernacle.

After hearing all the evidence, including from the defendant who took the stand, the jury found her guilty on June 15 of theft, fraud by abuse of position and removal of criminal property from England and Wales.

However, she was only sentenced a month later.