NU wages farce ends up in court

Angela Turrell worked in a Norwich call centre for two weeks. She then continued to be paid £656 a month for more than a year.

08 September 2006 10:26

Norwich Union carried on paying a former worker for nearly 20 months after she had left - and then called in the police when it noticed the mistake.

Angela Turrell, who only worked for the company for two weeks, said she wrote and told her employers about six times, but the money kept on coming.

At the time she was pregnant, her father was dying, she was going through a divorce and had money and housing problems.

Yesterday, Turrell, 36, of Norwich Road, Cawston, was given a four-week jail sentence, suspended for six months, after admitting taking £13,064.51. She was also ordered to pay £45 costs.

Deputy district judge Samantha Leigh said: “It seems, on the face of it, the systems at the company may not be as good as they should have been.”

She said she accepted Turrell's assertion she had been writing letters to the company.

Her solicitor Simon Nicholls told Norwich magistrates Court yesterday: “This case is very bizarre. She did nothing to create this offence at all. She carried on taking the money, of course she did.”

After the hearing he added: “People might be a little surprised, given the high-profile nature of Norwich Union, that they chose to deal with this matter through the criminal courts without trying to recover the money from Mrs Turrell through an application in the civil courts.

''The case has not perhaps put them in the best of lights. The comments by the deputy district judge, and the very fair and reasonable sentence probably reflects the court's view.” Prosecutor Alan Hughes said Turrell, who worked at the call centre in Colegate, Norwich, was there for two weeks.

Due to an “error by the payroll department” the company continued paying her £656 a month from January 2003 until the end of August 2004.

Mr Hughes said Pauline Wegg, the group payroll manager in Scotland, had said that in 28 years with the company she could only recall two similar cases of people being paid for a long time after leaving.

The company employed 29,000 people and there was nothing in the prosecution file to confirm the defendant wrote to it.

Mr Nicholls said Turrell had never been in any kind of trouble before. At the time she had financial problems and was going through an acrimonious divorce.

“They kept putting money into her bank account. She is absolutely clear she wrote the company about six letters about the situation.”

After the case Turrell, who has not got to pay Norwich Union anything back unless they pursue a claim through the civil courts, admitted she was technically guilty of theft, but said she felt Norwich Union had treated her badly.

She only worked as a trainee for about two weeks before accepting another job with the Department of Work and Pensions. Norwich Union kept sending her payslips and paying the money into her bank account at a time when she had problems and a lot going on in her life. She was pregnant, then she had her little boy, her father was dying, she was going through a divorce and had money and housing problems.

She sent the payslips back marked 'Return to sender, not known at this address.' But the slips kept coming and the money continued to be paid into her bank account. She moved house and remarried in May 2004.

Eventually the payments stopped and she carried on with her life until the police turned up on her doorstep in June. She was arrested and later charged with theft.

“The past few weeks have been a nightmare,” she said.

She felt Norwich Union should have contacted her and tried to come to an arrangement with her to pay the money back.

“They are claiming they didn't get any notification from me, but they must have done because the payments stopped,” said Turrell, now a registered childminder.

“I'm glad it's all over, but it also could have cost me my job; it could yet, I don't know,” she said. I've had to contact Ofsted and they say I can carry on at the moment but they will have to carry out an investigation.”

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