Dance teacher to be sentenced over £20,000 trip fund theft (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Dance teacher to be sentenced over £20,000 trip fund theft

8:04am Friday 10th July 2009

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The administrator of a dancing school will be sentenced today for stealing almost £20,000 from a fund to send pupils to a dance competition in America.

Amanda Williams, 52, admitted fraud at Swindon Crown Court last month after stealing £19,398 from Bobbi's Dance Academy, which is run by her daughter, Bobbi Newman.

Williams took the money, which was intended to pay for 14 girls to take part in a ten-day visit to the Dance Excellence competition in Los Angeles in April.

Williams, known as Mandy, from Stonebeck Close, Swindon, was arrested in Dorset after she went missing from her home when the embezzlement was discovered as the group was about to fly out to America.

The girls were left stranded and heartbroken at the airport when it transpired that flights and hotels had not been booked and the money was missing.

But the troupe eventually went to the competition after the dancers, their parents and an anonymous donation paid for the trip at the last minute.

And organiser Dance Excellence waived the entry fees and paid for hotels for the girls.

Williams is due to be sentenced today at Swindon Crown Court.

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