PRT statement on sentencing in the recent fraud case

Commenting on the sentence handed down today (23 July), Pia Sinha, chief executive of the Prison Reform Trust, said:

“Miss O’Sullivan’s actions represent an egregious breach of trust, which has been reflected in the sentence handed down today. Over the course of eight years, Miss O’Sullivan deliberately set out to defraud the charity of its funds, stealing money that was intended to support the 88,000 people in prison we serve.

“Given the gravity of the offence, a prison sentence was almost inevitable. As a charity focused on prison reform and rehabilitation, seeing a former colleague handed a custodial sentence has raised a lot of complex and difficult emotions. Despite the harm she has caused, and the need for justice to be served, we hope Miss O’Sullivan will have an opportunity to reflect on her actions and is given the support she needs to rehabilitate.

“PRT has also reflected on the lessons it needs to learn from this sad episode. We continue to believe in giving people second chances, but this must always be done responsibly and with appropriate safeguards in place. Our funders and donors place their confidence in us to be responsible stewards of their generous contributions and we take that role extremely seriously. As a result of bringing this case to justice, we have reviewed our policies and introduced robust safeguards to ensure such wrongdoing cannot happen again. We will always act in a way that protects our organisation, our donors and the people we support.”