Sarah Gray, of Consett, admitted stealing money from UK Industrial Tapes Ltd in Throckley, over a six month period
Sarah Gray, 46, of Consett, who defrauded UK Industrial Tapes Ltd out of £34,000(Image: Chronicle Live/UK Industrial Tapes Ltd)
A family-run Newcastle business uncovered a £34,000 fraud committed by its former finance manager and which threw its operations into confusion. Sarah Gray, of Durham Road, Consett, appeared at Newcastle Magistrates’ Court on Friday, having admitted stealing the money from UK Industrial Tapes Ltd in Throckley, over a six month period.
The court heard how Gray had spent the money on household bills and a holiday. Prosecuting, Chike Anieto told the court how she had taken £34,257.19 across thirty-six transactions – and that when she was eventually arrested she had admitted: “I have done a bad thing.”
In mitigation, lawyer Brogan Shirreffs highlighted how Gray, 46, had struggled with her mental health and finances – and regretted the offences.
The firm’s bosses told ChronicleLive how the hiring of a second finance manager, Stephen Moran, who replaced Gray, had been key in unravelling the “deceitful” fraud. When he started as the new finance manager at the start of June last year, Gray had been working there for around seven months.
Stephen said: “When I arrived, there was an understanding between people here that Sarah couldn’t do the job she was being paid to do. Staff and suppliers weren’t getting paid correctly, and the decision has been made that I would come in and Sarah would work alongside me.
“However, after Sarah was told on the Monday that I would be starting the following day, she didn’t turn up for work on Tuesday. We attempted to contact her, both myself and the directors, but she had clearly decided not to come back, which I initially thought was just a personal issue”.
While getting to grips with his new role, just a few weeks later at the end of June, Stephen was contacted by a supplier of the company, which manufactures adhesive tapes and similar products. They were chasing a payment which looked, on the company’s system at least, as if it had already been paid. As a result, he began looking into the transaction.
UK Industrial Tapes Ltd in Throckley, Newcastle Upon Tyne(Image: Chronicle Live)
He continued: “I went into the bank account to see who it had been paid to, and it came back as a Lloyds Bank account which was based in Consett. I began to find other payments made to the same bank account, and when I used a banking app to check the payee details, I couldn’t believe it when the account matched the name Sarah Gray.
“I let out an audible gasp, which nobody else was there to hear, as the directors were away on holiday at that time. The payments began to add up, £5,000, to £10,000, then £15,000, and £20,000, and I found evidence of £30,000, before passing it over to the bank that brought the total that she’d taken up to £34,000 from December 2024 to the end of May 2025.
“I told the company directors, and the police were brought into it too, with Sarah being arrested at her new workplace in September. That is something that we were very determined about, making sure that a similar thing didn’t happen to the new company she worked for”.
The firm’s managing director Michael Welch, who heads up the business alongside his brother Matthew, mum Ruth, and dad Brian. Brian set up the firm in 1997.
Michael said: “We were concerned that she could get another role within a smaller business, with this kind of loss potentially fatal to them, but I think within our team it definitely impacted people. We have long-standing staff members who have been here over 15 years, and in a situation like this, she was stealing from everyone.
UK Industrial Tapes Ltd in Throckley, Newcastle Upon Tyne(Image: Chronicle Live)
“We had a known for a while that she was incapable of doing the job, but thought it was incompetence, as she never understood what was going on and would blame other people. This shattered our confidence too, as we felt like we had made the wrong decision, because you should be able to trust and rely on your team.
“Each step of this situation got more bizarre, when she didn’t come back to work, then what Stephen was finding, we were shell-shocked by it all. We spoke to all the staff, so many who were impacted by what she had done, and they were shocked but many not surprised because of what she had been like.
“As a business, we are in a very strong place, with a great team, and we have been able to maintain our strong relationships with suppliers and clients through all of this. We’re glad to have Stephen as he had been great in his role, and has gone above and beyond to uncover this situation too”.
At the first hearing on January 13, Sarah Gray, 46, of Consett, pleaded guilty to fraud by abuse of position. She then appeared again at Newcastle Magistrates’ Court on February 13, where magistrates decided they did not have sufficient sentencing powers to deal with the case.
Instead, Gray’s case was committed for sentence at Newcastle Crown Court on March 12.
Did you know you can make ChronicleLive a preferred source of North East news in Google, which will mean you get more of our breaking news, exclusives, and must-read stories straight away? Here’s more information about what this means and how to do it – you can also do it straight away by clicking here.
Our ChronicleLive Daily newsletter is free. You can sign up to receive it here. It will keep you up to date with all the latest breaking news and top stories from the North East.