Woman who stole £90k from Bradford church is jailed

Anita Burkevica, 48, of Regency Court, Bradford was sentenced to 18 months behind bars for fraud by abuse of position, at Bradford Crown Court on Wednesday.

She had pleaded guilty at Bradford and Keighley Magistrates’ Court on June 28.

The court heard Burkevica was Chairperson and Treasurer for the Latvian Lutheran Church in Bradford for five years when she abused that position of “trust and responsibility”.

Anita Burkevica, 48, of Regency Court, Bradford (Image: West Yorkshire Police)

His Honour Judge Ahmed Nadim said: “Between the period of August 2018 and May 2019 you abused that position by stealing from the church monies of the order of £90,000.”

This was done through two transactions, according to the prosecution.

The first came after the church sold a property in Leeds for £140,000 to raise funds for running the congregation and the pastor noticed in early 2019 that £50,000 had gone missing.

He asked Burkevica about this and she said the “money had been invested in bonds for a better rate of interest”, according to the prosecution.

Mr Ward, for the prosecution, said: “So far, so good – it seems at the time it was accepted”.

But then a further £40,000 went missing a few months later and Burkevica admitted to taking the money and claimed she would pay it back when an insurance claim relating to a man she had struck up a relationship with was paid.

The court heard the man’s wife had died in a “horrific crash” and this was the subject of the insurance claim.

Judge Nadim said: “You decided to support him and his children in their lifestyles.

“You paid for a property in your own name in your country of origin, Latvia, with the purchase having been made from money you had taken, or some of the money you had taken, from the church.”

The prosecution said this property cost €60,000.

The court heard when Burkevica’s promised repayment “was not forthcoming” she was reported to police.

Burkevica paid £150 back in July 2019, which her defence lawyer Ms Embleton said was “a drop in the ocean” but was all she could give at the time.

Ms Embleton added that Burkevica would be able to pay back £1,000 each month moving forward, now she is earning between £2,000 and £2,500 working on her family’s farm back in Latvia.

Burkevica has no previous convictions.

In mitigation, her defence said Burkevica takes her 76-year-old mother to and from various appointments, due to her living in a small village without a pharmacy or doctors’ surgery, and an immediate custodial sentence would have a detrimental impact.

Ms Embleton said Burkevica has seven children – three blood relatives and four from the man she struck up a relationship with.

Burkevica is very close with the man’s 16-year-old daughter, who has significant mental health issues due to her mother dying in a crash, the court heard.

Ms Embleton said: “She’s already lost one mother in a horrific car crash, she’d built up a mother-daughter relationship and she would effectively lose a second mother.”

But Judge Nadim said the offence was “far too serious” to not impose an immediate custodial sentence.

A timetable has been set for a Proceeds of Crime Act application and will be heard next on December 4.