Police officer accused of stealing £12k wages overpayment tells court "I'm not a thief"
A police officer accused of stealing a £12,000 wages overpayment from her force has told a court "I'm not a thief".
PC Nicola Owen continued to receive full-time pay for a year, despite halving her hours of work at Northumbria Police, jurors have heard.
Owen, of Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, denies theft of £12,888 between September 1 2022 and October 1 2023 and is being tried by a jury at Newcastle Crown Court.
Giving evidence from the witness box today, Owen said she has paid the money back and when asked by her barrister Mairi Clancy if she had intended to keep the overpayment, she said: "No, never, that would be dishonest."
Owen told the court she had raised the overpayment issue during a meeting in September 2023.
She told the court: "All I wanted from the conversation in September 2023 and from the police as an organisation as a employer, was a conversation to say 'this is the money that's outstanding, these are the bank details where you need to pay it back and this is who you need to speak to to get it paid back and a receipt', this is all I wanted from the conversation and that was my intention."
Owen said Northumbria Police "hadn't shown any kind of urgency" to tell her how to pay the money back and added: "I am not dishonest, I am not a thief, I wanted to pay this money back."
Prosecutor Joe Culley has told jurors Owen was overpaid by around £17,095 wages plus £1,290 unsociable hours enhancements.
Mr Culley said she paid tax and national insurance on those amounts but still made a "significant gain" for herself and a "significant loss" for the force.
The court heard it is not in dispute that the defendant was overpaid or by how much but Mr Culley added: "Really, this is a case that concerns her mental state during the period which she was receiving and using, keeping, spending, effectively, those overpayments.
"The prosecution case is by keeping the money and treating it as her own, even though she wasn't entitled to it, by doing so she was acting dishonestly and intended to permanently deprive Northumbria Police of the money."
During interview Owen denied acting dishonestly.The trial continues.