Hucknall payroll fraudster admits stealing more than £120,000

Sandra Komunska, aged 29, worked for a specialist payroll management company when she made dozens of payments to her own accounts by creating false emails, invoices and payee details.

Between June 2016 and January 2020, she embezzled about £123,000.

Komunska was exposed during an internal investigation into a missing client payment.

She later admitted the money had been paid directly into a bank account controlled by her and was sacked by her employer.

Further investigations revealed multiple payments to two other accounts controlled by Komunska.

Komunska, of Lovesey Avenue, Hucknall, claimed the money had been stolen to support her children during a period of financial hardship.

She later pleaded guilty to fraud by abuse of position.

At Nottingham Crown Court, she was given a two-year jail sentence suspended for 18 months, and ordered to complete 20 rehabilitation days and complete 150 hours of unpaid work.

Detective Constable Christopher Underwood, a specialist fraud investigator at Nottinghamshire Police, said: “Komunska repeatedly stole a large sum of money over a three-and-a-half-year period.

“She could have stopped this offending at any time but chose instead to keep stealing more and more from the employers who had put so much time and effort into training her.

“This was an appalling abuse of trust.”