J.K. Rowling’s former personal assistant, Amanda Donaldson, was sentenced to return £18.734 to the author due to fraud. According to Rowling, the former employee used her company’s credit card to buy items for personal use and foreign currencies.
The expenses were discovered after Amanda’s dismissal. Among the expenses were £3,000 in stationary, £1,500 in coffee shops, and £7,742 in foreign currencies. She also stole items from the Harry Potter series, estimated at £3,213.
During the process, Amanda’s defence claimed she didn’t intend to fool J.K. Rowling, and she believed she was allowed to do such expenses. However, the judge responsible for the case did not consider Amanda trustworthy and sentenced her to pay £18,734. On the other hand, the judge declared that there was not enough proof that she was responsible for the Harry Potter items that went missing, not sentencing her to return the objects.
The judge praised the “thoughtful, considered, measured, accurate, honest and reliable fashion” J.K. Rowling presented her pieces of evidence, besides the fact that the author gave her former assistant the benefit of the doubt every time that was possible.
The author declared to be satisfied with the result and explained that all the money received would be donated to Lumos, her NGO focused on working to end orphanages all over the world. Rowling said that taking the case to court was her last resort and it was not done in order to obtain money for herself but to protect her other employee’s reputations and certify that the Donaldson Army is not able to abuse the trust of other employers.
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