Swindling Girl Guides sisters forced to sell Leeds home to help recoup stolen £480,000
Two sisters who conned almost £500,000 from the government are to sell their Leeds home after the courts ordered they begin paying the money back.
Sarah and Jean Barnbrook, who ran three Girl Guides troops in the Cross Gates area, were jailed last year for a brazen Gift Aid con.
For six years they falsely declared that parents had generously donated almost £2 million, and as a result they received the £482,294 in Gift Aid - a scheme that allows charities to claim an extra 25p for every £1 donated by a taxpayer.
They then splashed the cash on luxury items and holidays.
They appeared at Leeds Crown Court for a Proceeds of Crime Act hearing to determine how the sisters would start repaying the money.
It was heard that the available amount for each of the sisters was £60,000. It would mean the sale of their three-bedroom house on Laurel Terrace in the Whinmoor area.
Judge Robin Mairs gave them three months to pay the £120,000 or risk an additional 18 months in prison.
They were also told that should further funds become available, they are required to declare the details and it be considered for confiscation.
Sara Barnbrook was jailed for three years and Jean was jailed for 30 months in November last year for their sophisticated fraud.
The sneaky pair manipulated the system between 2013 and 2019.
They siphoned the cash into their own accounts and splashed out on hotels, clothing, travel, home improvements and paying off personal loans. They also withdrew thousands in cash.
The pair then tried to blame a fictitious woman they conjured up to divert the blame.
Sara Barnbrook, 54, eventually admitted a charge of cheating the public revenue, with Jean Barnbrook admitting a charge of entering into a money-laundering arrangement.
Jean, 52, has since been stripped of her civic awards she received from Leeds City Council, while an investigation was carried out into grants awarded to her by the council down the years.