Anita Mirmohammadi, 31, spent four years extracting money from her employer to fund trips to Mexico, Turkey and Dubai as well as high-end purchases at shops including Harrods, Selfridges and Mercedes Benz.

The woman who led a lavish lifestyle, funded by defrauding her company of more than £184,000, has been jailed for five years and 10 months.

 

Basildon Crown Court heard Anita Mirmohammadi, 31, of Temple Close in Finchley, north London, used a company credit card and submitted fraudulent invoices to extract money from the firm where she worked in Brentwood, Essex.

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She was able to fund luxury purchases at Harrods, Selfridges and Mercedes Benz, as well as holidays to Mexico, Turkey and Dubai.

 

Following a seven-day trial, Mirmohammadi was found guilty of fraud by false representation and sentenced on Friday.

The court heard she was hired as a manager in her employer’s finance team in 2018, entitling her to a company credit card. But it was four years later, in April 2022, when her firm alerted police after carrying out unrelated fraud checks.

 

Essex Police arrested Mirmohammadi at Gatwick Airport as she returned from holiday in Dubai on 22 May 2022. During her interview with officers, she answered no comment to all questions.

In a statement, police said her company credit card was used to fund regular spending on Apple, Amazon, eBay, Uber and Zara, as well as Thames Water and Harley Street Dental.

 

During sentencing, Judge Shane Collery said: “She [Mirmohammadi] was not dependent on stealing to survive and her claim that she does care is hard to accept as she gave no thought to the consequences at all.

“She is a selfish, self-obsessed woman who repeated regular dishonesty, which was systemic and sustained and she must have seen what she was doing.”

 

Detective Constable Karen Venables said: “This was a calculated, ongoing fraud that would have continued had she not been caught.

“It was clear from the deception we found in these accounts that Mirmohammadi knew what she was doing was wrong and was trying to cover her tracks.”

 

Police said £184,675.89 was siphoned from the company – £126,381.19 by credit card and £63,294.70 from the business account via invoices.

Officers said work was ongoing to identify criminal gains that can be confiscated from Mirmohammadi under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

 

A confiscation hearing is scheduled for November at Basildon Crown Court.