A 37-year-old businesswoman who duped dozens of customers into believing she could provide cut-price iPads wept today as she was jailed for two years after admitting a £450,000 fraud.
Kirsty Cox, a mother-of-two, from Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, caused misery to children last Christmas after tricking their parents into thinking she could source them the highly-valued presents, Judge George Moorhouse said at Teesside Crown Court.
In what was a “ludicrous” situation, she spent £1.52 million on full-price iPads from PC World and was selling them at a loss to some customers, after taking thousands of orders, Paul Cleasby, defending, said.
By the time Cox was arrested in December 2012, angry customers were gathering outside her home, demanding to know what had happened to their orders.
After she was arrested, she was kept in custody for her own safety, such was the anger she caused locally.
Previously, she pleaded guilty four counts of fraud totalling £450,000 said to have occurred between August and December 2012.
Shaun Dodds, prosecuting, said the actual loss to customers was more than £1.1 million.
