Pair in Four Year £183K Bingo Scam Busted

From Trusted Bingo Cashiers to Behind Bars!

Shocking news to bring you from Liverpool includes details on how a pair of bingo cashiers stole at least £183K over a four-year period, before being caught with their fingers in the till! Jorun Chang, 58 and Jeanette Warrilow, 59, were extremely trusted bingo cashiers for more than 20-years at a local branch of Pavilion Bingo, until September 2016 when manager Philip Corran noticed takings were up! Usually, discrepancies are spotted when taking are lower than expected, but on this specific Saturday session, Warrilow wasn’t on shift – she was on holiday with Chang.

Comparing the figures, the manager realised the reconciliation sheets didn’t match and confronted the cashier who simply claimed she made a mistake before leaving. This was later followed by a suspension and confession at a disciplinary hearing that same month. Reconciliation sheets is a system most operators use to record takings, and it involved the bingo pair collecting money from the sale of paper and electronic bingo boards. Once gathered, they would then need to submit the totals on a sheet of paper. As a result of the discrepancies, the bingo company started to dig a little further and between 2012 and 2016, after a painstakingly analysis, the company discovered that it started with a few hundred pounds missing here and there before being increased steadily to them eventually “taking well over £20,000 per year each.”

Bingo Birds Headed Straight to Jail

At the lowest of estimates, Warrilow stole £83,500 but Chang stole considerably more at £99,900! When all this was going on, staffing numbers were being reduced and the bingo operator was running at a loss. Cheryl Mottram, prosecuting, asked if there were others involved but they said they couldn’t answer that question. Asking why they did it, Warrilow said she knew she could get away with it and it was too easy to give into temptation, what with knowing the manager never checked the sheets.

Recorder Ian Unsworth, QC, said: “This is both a serious case involving a significant sustained breach of trust, involving the theft of quite astronomical sums of money from their employers, but also an extremely sad case – that two women aged in their late 50s, now with families, who prior to this offence, beginning some time in 2012, were of good character and they have thrown that all away through their own greed.”

Jorun Chang, 58, was jailed for 16 months while Jeanette Warrilow, 59, was jailed for 12 months. Warrilow expressed remorse at her actions while Chang gave two “no comment” interviews in October 2016 and July 2017. Both women, of previous good character, were charged in December of 2020, but with everything going on, the pair only admitted theft by employee earlier this year.

Source: “Bingo Scam: ‘Greedy’ Bingo Pair Stole £183,000 Before Being Busted on Holiday After Four Year Scam”. The Sun. June 20, 2021.