Bramcote: Grandmother who stole £70,000 from school jailed

In a victim impact statement read out in court, Sarah Meredith, head teacher at Bramcote, spoke of the “significant impact” on everyone connected to the school.

She said she had to consider making redundancies among staff to compensate for the deficit, with pupils affected by budget cuts that saw vital equipment limited and computers not updated.

Describing Gill as “a friend, colleague and confidante” before her fraud was discovered, she said she felt “totally deceived and betrayed” by her actions, which had caused personal stress and detracted from day-to-day school management.

“I cannot stress enough the detrimental impact that this has had,” she said.

“The children over a number of years have missed out, and have suffered from being unable to access essential resources.”

Defending Gill, Luc Chignell said she had “felt under pressure to provide finances to her partner and his son to fund their ongoing drug misuse”.

He said she felt “utterly ashamed” of affecting the community she was part of, and had “tainted” all the good work she had carried out at the school.

“There really are no winners in this case,” he said.