Clifford Chance cashier jailed for nicking £60k
15 April 2011
A former member of Clifford Chance's finance department was jailed this week after stealing £63,000 from the firm.

Until last year Emma Rowsell was a chief cashier at CC. This week she pleaded guilty in Snaresbrook Crown Court to using her position to defraud the firm and nick £63,000. Her justification for this was, apparently, that she was "fed up of being paid less than her peers".

Unsurprisingly this failed to move the court. Neither - rather more harshly - did the fact that she is essentially a single parent with a five-year-old son. Pleas for a suspended sentence were rejected on the grounds that she had abused a position of responsibility, and she was banged up for 18 months.

A Clifford Chance cashier turning up for work. How it might look.

A spokeswoman for CC said that "we can confirm that Emma Rowsell, a junior member of the firm's finance team, was dismissed in 2010 following routine audit checks which highlighted fraudulent financial activity. An internal investigation was carried out and the police were informed. As a result, the firm has made a number of changes to its internal systems. There has been no financial loss to Clifford Chance clients as a result of this fraud."

All the same, there seems to a bit of a trend for not-so-sneaky theft from CC at the moment.