A woman has been fined after trying to “catch out” a company she had been in a dispute with at work. Kimberly Lloyd, 35, impersonated someone else when she placed orders for thousands of pounds’ worth of defibrillators in a disastrous attempt at “detective work”.
The Cardiff Crown Court judge, Recorder Andrew Hammond, described Lloyd as a “well-educated, intelligent and resourceful woman” who before her fraud had led a “productive and useful” life and had received “modest” pay from her employer, the London Hearts charity. “You have led a privileged and comfortable life,” he told her. “You have not experienced the poverty or addiction that many who come before this court have struggled with.”
Lloyd, from Rhondda Cynon Taf, attended the private Howell’s School in Llandaff, Cardiff, before studying law at the University of Glamorgan. She went on to work for London Hearts, which had been partly set up by her father. The charity was funded by grants and provided defibrillators to organisations including the Welsh Rugby Union and Welsh fire services.
London Hearts had been procuring defibrillators from a manufacturer called Zoll Medical for onward distribution for charitable causes. But by late 2021 a dispute had arisen between the charity and Zoll over delayed orders. “You formed a suspicion that Zoll was making false excuses to you for why it had been unable to supply the defibrillators London Hearts had paid for,” said the judge. “You suspected the company would not supply to London Hearts but would for others. You decided to do some detective work.”
In November 2021, Lloyd used a false email address to pose as Sherilyn Hamilton-Shaw — a director of Cariad Medical Ltd, a company which provides medics for events and film shoots — and ordered £26,735 worth of defibrillators from Zoll. Twice she followed up with emails chasing Zoll for the order. The company, which only had five defibrillators in stock, delivered £4,452 worth of equipment to Lloyd’s grandparents’ home. Lloyd then made a further order for £6,252 worth of defibrillators and accessories, again in Mrs Hamilton-Shaw’s name.
This order was not fulfilled because by this time Mrs Hamilton-Shaw’s husband Anthony had alerted Zoll to the impersonation. Police later raided Lloyd’s home and on that date she paid for one of the orders, before paying the remaining balance at a later date. Lloyd admitted setting up the fake email address and using her grandparents’ address for the delivery but claimed she only did so to see if the manufacturer was “manipulating the marketplace”.
Lloyd, of Oakmead Road in Llanharan, pleaded not guilty to fraud and during her trial claimed she had not expected any equipment to be supplied because she had not made any payment. “I never expected to receive anything because of no payment,” she said. “We always paid up front. I just wanted to catch them out.”
The jury found Lloyd not guilty of fraud over the first order but guilty over the second order. Recorder Hammond said he could not know the jury’s reasoning for this but he added: “It may have been that, contrary to your evidence, you knew the defibrillators had been delivered for the first order by the time you made the second.
“Your expectation was your impersonation would give you the evidence that Zoll Medical was deliberately withholding defibrillators from London Hearts. You were acting dishonestly and intended to obtain defibrillators for London Hearts from Zoll Medical. I am satisfied that your belief that Zoll Medical was treating London Hearts unfairly was a genuine one, but you allowed this to distort your judgement. Even if your suspicions were correct — and I make no comment either way on that — they in no way justify your actions of seeking delivery of defibrillators by pretending to be someone you are not.”
The judge said the case is a “salutary lesson” to those in the charity sector who consider their line of work “far removed” from the world of criminal law. He told Lloyd: “You have no previous conviction, cautions or warnings. Your character references speak of a generous, caring and hardworking woman well respected by those around her.”
Christopher Rees KC, representing Lloyd, said: “This is an exceptional set of circumstances because the defining feature of this case is that the gain was not personal. It was a gain for the charity. There was a dispute between the charity and Zoll, who had £25,000 worth of credit belonging to London Hearts and hadn’t supplied defibrillators for a number of months. She said she was at her wits’ end and that’s why the order was made.”
Mr Rees added that his client had been deeply affected by her father’s death from cancer and that she cared for him before he died. “She no longer works for the charity,” he told the court. “She is working, however, and she has a weekly income of £400.”
Recorder Hammond took into account that the probation service had assessed Lloyd’s risk of reoffending as low and that there had been “no prospect of the fraud succeeding”. He also noted that responding to the fraud would have cost the affected organisations some managerial time and that the impersonation would have been concerning to those at Cariad.
The judge imposed a £600 fine, prosecution costs of £650 and a £60 victim services surcharge. After walking from the dock Lloyd tearfully embraced a loved one. Join our WhatsApp news community here for the latest breaking news.
