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The Lichfield single mother who was ordered pay back £52,000 which was wrongly put in her bank accounts claims she is being treated unfairly because of the way she looks.

Michaela Hutchings says she is being made an example of because she’s attractive.

The 23-year-old hit the headlines earlier this year when she went on a spending spree after Lichfield Council mistakenly paid her the money.

She went to Birmingham’s Bullring and splashed out on designer shoes, handbags and sunglasses.

But after the mistake was discovered, she was taken to court and ordered to pay back all the money by Christmas or go to jail.

In an interview with a national, Miss Hutchings is reported to have said: “I’ve done wrong but I’m only human the same as everyone else. They’re punishing me because of the way I look.”

Last year Lichfield District Council accidentally transferred £51,821.34 into her account instead of it going to a housing association.

Hutchings said she discovered the money while withdrawing cash on a trip to buy milk, and when she quizzed her bank over the sum, they couldn’t tell her where it had come from.





She maintains that she wouldn’t have touched the money had it not been for her ex-boyfriend, who she says took her shopping to spend the cash.

The pair went to Selfridges where, according to Hutchings, her boyfriend bought thousands of pounds worth of designer clothes, shoes, belts and sunglasses.

She claims that she initially spent nothing, but on the second day treated herself to a Gucci bag, a Louis Vuitton bag and belt and Dior sunglasses.

In just 48 hours, she had spent £8,000 on shopping, and used a further £1,000 to pay off an outstanding train fine that had built up.

She also gave her mother £1,000, and had put a further £40,000 into savings on the advice of her bank, who were unaware of the council’s mistake.

She pleaded guilty at Stafford Crown Court to dishonestly retaining a wrongful credit and was ordered to pay £52, 465.21 - the initial sum, plus £643.87 interest - by Christmas Eve or go to prison.

Hutchings says she immediately repaid the £40,000 she had saved, plus £3,600 left in her bank account.

The council will auction off the items she bought, and then it is up to her to repay the rest.

She said is putting aside £20 a week from working in her parents’ stables, but is considering appealing the terms of her “unfair” repayments.

“‘If I wasn’t much to look at and played the card of ‘oh, I only get this much a month, I was in a bit of a sticky situation’, I reckon I’d have got a slap on the wrist and just paid back a fiver a week,” she said.

“I pleaded guilty, but the only person guilty is the person who put the money in my account. I don’t think I should have been punished the way I was. It’s just outrageous.”