Anita Mirmohammadi: 'Selfish' woman jailed for stealing nearly £200k using company credit card to fund lavish lifestyle

Anita Mirmohammadi, 31, of Temple Close in Finchley, was sentenced to five years and 10 months at Basildon Crown Court on Friday, May 9, after being found guilty of fraud by false representation.

Mirmohammadi joined a Brentwood-based company in 2018 as a manager in the finance team and was issued a company credit card. Over four years, she used the card for personal gain and created fraudulent invoices to extract even more money from the business.

On April 21, 2022, a routine internal audit unrelated to the fraud uncovered a pattern of suspicious global transactions. Banks, police, and Action Fraud were alerted, prompting a full investigation.

Detectives discovered she had spent £126,381.19 using the business credit card and stole an additional £63,294.70 through fake invoices, taking the total to £184,675.89. She used the stolen funds to shop at Harrods, Selfridges, and Mercedes Benz, and paid for holidays to Mexico, Turkey and Dubai.

Mirmohammadi also regularly spent company money on Apple, Amazon, eBay, Uber, Zara, Thames Water, and Harley Street Dental. One month before her arrest, Harrods’ own investigation caught her on CCTV using the company card.

She was arrested at Gatwick Airport on May 22, 2022 after returning from a trip to Dubai. During police interview, she answered “no comment” to all questions. She was later charged in February 2023 and found guilty following a seven-day trial on 14 March 2025.

In court, Judge Shane Collery said: “She was not dependant on stealing to survive and her claim that she does care is hard to accept as she gave no thought to the consequences at all. She is a selfish, self-obsessed woman who repeated regular dishonesty, which was systemic and sustained and she must have seen what she was doing.”

A confiscation hearing under the Proceeds of Crime Act is scheduled for the week beginning 3 November 2025 to recover any assets.

Detective Constable Karen Venables, who led the investigation, said: “This sentence shows the severity of Mirmohammadi’s offending. This was a calculated, ongoing fraud that would have continued had she not been caught, and I am glad to see the judge recognise this in his sentencing.

“It was clear from the deception we found in these accounts that Mirmohammadi knew what she was doing was wrong and was trying to cover her tracks.

“Our Economic Crime Team has worked closely with the banks, businesses and Action Fraud to piece together the full extent of her offending – that work doesn’t stop at sentencing, and we now turn to confiscating any criminal gains under the Proceeds Of Crime Act.”