One of the most significant recorded cases of financial fraud associated with a UK archaeological project came to an end on 14 October [2024] with the sentencing at Norwich Magistrates Court of Kings Lynne Grandmother Pamela Bent, 65, who had admitted stealing a total of £113,000 while acting as treasurer of the Sedgeford Historical and Archaeological Research Project (Sharp) of Hunstanton, Norfolk.
Sentencing Mrs Bent to two years in prison suspended for two years, the recorder Ruth Brander presiding told the Mrs Bent that her offences of abuse of position and fraud by way of false accounting, were the result of a “misguided attempt” to repay her debts after her husband lost his job meaning they could not maintain their mortgage payments.
“This wasn’t an offence committed out of greed, rather desperation,” said barrister Mr Philip Farr defending Mrs Bent.
At an earlier hearing in August the court was told she had taken the money over a period between June 2020 and January 2022 and that she had already begun to
return the stolen money before the Police investigation began.
She contacted the Police and told them that had borrowed the money.
The court heard she was also seeking treatment for gambling addiction.
At the conclusion of the case some £61,000 of the stolen money remains outstanding.
The court was told Mrs Bent will be forced to sell her house to meet the repayment.
Following sentencing the Committee of SHARP issued a statement on the project website, including the following comments,
“SHARP trustees and committee are all deeply shocked and saddened that someone within the charity would abuse a position of trust. We are working on an incident report for the membership which will provide more details about the case, our investigation, and will highlight the ways we as a charity have improved our systems to ensure this does not happen again. This will be released as soon as possible.”
The SHARP committee added,
“The charity commission have been kept informed throughout the case and have been content that the trustees are managing the situation. As we mentioned at
our AGM the Trustees and committee have now strengthened SHARP’s old financial systems, but more significantly we have also put new policies and procedures
in place to ensure this never happens again. The accounts have now been fully examined by an external independent accountant who was recommended for his
work with charity groups.”
The attitude of the Charity Commission will have come as a relief to the Project team as a fraud on the scale of that faced by SHARP could have represented an existential risk to the charity had the commission felt the committee’s response was not adequate.
The committee concluded by thanking project members and volunteers for their support at a difficult time during a 2024 digging season which saw a six week programme
cut down to four weeks.
While SHARP will be hoping its administrative changes and further fundraising will see the project into a secure accountable and sustainable future, others in the wider archaeological world will be hoping that the structural and administrative failures of the former regime at SHARP which enabled Mrs Bent to remove over one hundred thousand pounds from the project bank account over more than eighteen months are not indicative of the possibility that other projects may have administrative procedures, checks and balances which are not fit for purpose.
