A 31-YEAR-OLD woman has been jailed for fraud offences after pretending to be 15 people in various roles at a local authority and Ofsted.

Helen Dove, of Prescot Road, was sentenced to two years and eight months in prison after pleading guilty to two counts of fraud by false representation.

She was also ordered to pay £1,500 in compensation and handed a ten year protection from harassment order forbidding her to contact her victim.

Liverpool Crown Court was told that Dove had befriended her victim at a riding school in St Helens in January 2017. The woman told Dove that she wanted to pursue a career in child safeguarding.

Dove claimed she worked for Warrington Council as an adoption worker and as such could assist with an application for such a role and promised she would get a job. As a result the woman took taken redundancy from her job.

For the next seven months Dove pretended to be 15 people in various roles at the council and education watchdog Ofsted. She doctored bank statements, forged contracts of employment and faked job interviews, creating numerous false email accounts all the time remaining close friends with the victim.

As she was unemployed the victim suffered financial difficulties and sought employment elsewhere.

However Dove persuaded her not to take the job through the promise of the original job and wages she would be owed through ‘administrative errors’ which had led to the delay in her start date.

In total it is believed Dove has exposed her victim to losses of £50,000.

Dove’s fraudulent activity came to light when her victim carried out checks after receiving a document and identified Dove as the person sending the letter.

Constable Adam Carter, based in St Helens Level One investigations team, completed extensive enquiries and interviewed Dove during which she admitted creating 15 fictional people and corresponding email accounts from organisations including OFSTED and Warrington Council.

Detective Sergeant Paul Kay from Merseyside Police’s Economic Crime Team said: "This was a really unusual case and I have never seen anything like it before in my career.

"Dove made no monetary gain from this but the victim suffered unnecessary disruption and a loss of salary by Dove’s ongoing actions.

"Thanks to the extensive investigations of Constable Adam Carter we were able to establish Dove created a number of fictional persona through which she was able to convince her victim that she had been given a genuine job offer.

"I hope that Dove will use the time in prison to reflect on the consequences of her actions.

"Her victim was exceptionally supportive in assisting the prosecution. I hope that today’s sentence means she can finally move on with her life."

A Warrington Borough Council spokesperson said: "This was a sensitive, complex and unusual case, where somebody fraudulently used the council’s position for personal gain.

"As soon as the victim got in touch to clarify the job offer, we made her aware that the correspondence she had received was not related to the council.”

Read the full report from the court case here.