Mum-of-four stole almost £100,000 from church to fund ‘high lifestyle’

A church worker has avoided immediate jail after stealing nearly £100,000 from the Diocese of Westminster – funds that could have supported homeless people and food banks.

Francisca Yawson, 37, made nine bank transfers to herself between September 2018 and August 2019 while working as a gift aid and operations technician for the central London Roman Catholic Church division.

Southwark Crown Court heard Yawson, who gave birth to her fourth child in October, previously pleaded guilty to nine counts of theft. She was sentenced on Friday to two years in prison, suspended for two years.

Judge Mark Weekes said: “All in all, you were funding yourself to a reasonably good standard of lifestyle – grossly and dishonestly.”

Judge Weekes said that the money could have been used to help the homeless and families fed through food banks, adding that it would be on her “conscience” that children may have gone hungry “while you were helping yourself to a high lifestyle”.

He said that the case had seen a “shocking” delay after police wrongfully closed the investigation between 2021 and 2025, which he said had produced a “different outcome”.

The judge said had sentencing for her “meanness and selfishness” taken place in 2019 or 2020, she would likely have been jailed.

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He told her that she was “lucky because of the passage of time”, urging her to reflect on “the very real damage you caused to people less fortunate than you”.

In a statement, which was read to the court on his behalf, Nicholas Seed, the diocese’s chief financial officer, said it was “upsetting” that money which could have been used to help families fed through food banks and the homeless had been stolen.

He said: “The harm caused by (Yawson’s) actions therefore reverberates beyond this courtroom to every corner of our community.”

The thefts, amounting to more than £96,000, began with a £247 payment Yawson made to herself and escalated to a single transfer of almost £20,000, the court heard.

She disguised her actions on the diocese’s records, although dates and amounts matched transfers to her personal accounts, prosecutors said.

Yawson, of Stonebridge Park in Brent, north-west London, used the money mostly for “day-to-day” things, the court heard.

The defendant said £8,500 of the stolen money was transferred to Jamaica to help support her ill grandmother.

Ryan Evans, defending, said that Yawson had lost her employment and was on universal credit.

Mr Evans said that Yawson had found the stress of the proceedings, combined with having a newborn child, “very difficult”.

Judge Weekes ordered her to pay £1,000, carry out 150 hours of unpaid work and 15 hours of a rehabilitation requirement.