Ex-Royal Academy of Music FD Jailed for Fraud

THE FORMER Royal Academy of Music director of finance has been sentenced to 20 months' imprisonment for fraud.

Janet Whitehouse, who had pleaded guilty to the charges she faced at Westminster Magistrates' Court earlier this month, fabricated invoices and paperwork to gain more than £230,000. She was sentenced yesterday at Southwark Crown Court.

Whitehouse, who resigned from her role in March 2011, repaid a total of £319,500.

Invoices worth £100,000 had been submitted from a company called Whitely Associates, of which Whitehouse was a director, for false advice and services. She also fabricated authorisation from a former boss entitling her to increase her pension fund.

Whitehouse also secured rent-free accommodation for her son, worth in excess of £30,000.

Andrew Penhale, deputy head of the CPS Central Fraud Group, said: "Janet Whitehouse was a trusted finance director at the Royal Academy of Music, previously believed by her employers to be doing an excellent job. She has admitted betraying that trust by defrauding the Academy to the tune of £236,000.

"She committed this fraud against a national institution over a period of four years. We are pleased to have brought the case to a swift conclusion."