Helen Dove told friend she had secured her a job at Warrington council in elaborate fraud

This article is more than 7 months old

This article is more than 7 months old

A woman has been jailed for an elaborate fraud in which she convinced her best friend that she had secured her a non-existent dream job.

Helen Dove, 31, from St Helens, Merseyside, was jailed for two years and eight months after she posed as 15 different council workers, sending thousands of emails and tricking her friend into believing she had landed a sought-after job at a local authority.

The elaborate deceit began two years ago when Dove met Kimberley Baker, 43, at a riding school in St Helens and pretended to be an adoption worker after Baker told her she wanted to pursue a career in child safeguarding.

Dove claimed she worked for Warrington borough council and started arriving at the stables wearing what appeared to be a council lanyard, and began to help Baker fill in an application form for a job at the council.

Dove invented a sophisticated network of fake colleagues and sent thousands of emails on their behalf to convince Baker she had landed a role at the authority. She also forged bank statements, contracts of employment and faked job interviews through numerous false email accounts, Liverpool crown court heard.

The court heard that Baker, 43, was deceived into believing she had landed a dream job in children’s services, working alongside Dove, and went on to leave her job of 17 years at BT.

Paul Wood, prosecuting, said: “An interview date was sent to Ms Baker. This subsequently got cancelled. Ms Baker was then informed that she had to complete a set of interview questions over email. She completed these questions and a few days later she received an email confirming she had got the job.”

Baker celebrated, with Dove even giving her a congratulations card. However, after no job materialised, Baker began to seek alternative employment.

Dove’s deceit was finally uncovered when Baker contacted the local authority and was told it had no record of Dove ever being employed by them.

Dove was convicted of two counts of fraud by false representation on Wednesday. She must pay Baker £1,500 in compensation and must not contact her for 10 years.

Baker, a mother of three, said the hoax had “ruined her life” and forced her to cancel her wedding.

She told the Liverpool Echo: “It was like grieving for someone who is still alive. I was heartbroken. I couldn’t believe someone could do something so cruel and see my kids suffer at Christmas because I had no money, and watch my family go through everything that I did. She didn’t have any heart or feelings.”

Dove had holidayed with the Baker family and had been chosen as Baker’s chief bridesmaid. Baker said she had no reason to suspect her friend was lying to her.

She said: “She was my best friend, she was someone I was with 24/7, that did everything with me. She went on holiday with us, looked after the kids with me, took the kids to school, so I had no reason not to believe her.”

The judge Robert Warnock ruled that Dove’s hoax, between June 2017 and August 2018, cost Baker about £50,000 in lost wages.

Zahra Baqri, defending, said her client’s motive was not to cause her victim financial loss but “a desperate and misguided attempt at keeping her friendship”.

Baqri said Dove “lacked her own domestic unit, she craved that domestic closeness” and wanted to help Baker, but created a scheme that “snowballed”.

Warnock said he was perplexed by Dove’s motives and she had gone to “extraordinary lengths” to perpetrate a “complex, cruel and harmful deception”.

“I do not have a clear understanding as to why you behaved in this way and for such a long period. You have no previous convictions. You are intelligent and have academic qualifications,” he said.