Ramada GM jailed after stealing £311,000 from hotel

The general manager of the Ramada Birmingham Mailbox hotel has been jailed after stealing £311,000 through a flaw in its accounting system.

Hayley Barry was sentenced to three years and four months after an employee at the property turned whistle-blower.

The 47-year-old mother of two had previously admitted fraud when she appeared at Birmingham Crown Court, reported the http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/birmingham-ramada-hotel-boss-jailed-9867173" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer">Birmingham Mail.

Recorder Anthony Warner said: "You used your knowledge of a flaw in the system to take for yourself, over a six-year period, over £300,000. You did that on over 1,100 occasions by completing documentation which was entirely false to create cash refunds.

"You paid into your bank £171,000 and the rest you used for your own purposes. In the course of doing that you used employees inferior to you. You involved other people through pressure because they did not feel they had any option but to do what you asked them to."

Prosecutor Nicholas Cartwright said Barry worked at the hotel from January 2008 until her dismissal in February last year.

The court heard there was a ‘dummy room system' at the Ramada that was designed to deal with accounting adjustments, which Barry took advantage of.

"Barry misused that dummy room system. She put through false cash refunds, typically sums of between £300 and £600," said Cartwright.

"She did to some extent corrupt others. She would get them to manipulate the system."

Police were called in when another employee at the hotel reported what had been happening.