A 'greedy' pre-school administrator stole £65,000 to pay for takeaways, designer perfumes and a new sofa - causing the school to close down. 

Claire Precious, 49, used school bank cards to make 220 purchases from Amazon, Argos and other sites over five years. She made cash withdrawals of up to £500 and even used its money to do her food shops at Asda.

After buying a new sofa from The Range she dropped her old one off at the school saying she no longer needed it.

Bassetts Farm Pre-School in Exmouth, Devon, was forced to close down as a result of the fraud.

Colleagues became suspicious when the mum-of-three, from Exmouth, gave herself a nearly £10,000 pay rise between 2018 and 2020.

Other members of staff had difficulty getting access to the account and noticed passwords had been changed.

The police launched an investigation and Precious was arrested in January 2023.

The day she was arrested a parcel of moisturiser was delivered to the house and other items bought with school money including a set of blinds and a water dispenser were found at her home.

Chairman of the preschool, Daniel Moore, whose two children Charlie, 11, and Alice, 9, were pupils, told MailOnline: 'I was absolutely horrified when I found out.

'I don't really have any idea why she did it. From the data I have it started very small and trivial and built up over time.

'I can only presume as the judge said in court that greed got the better of her.

'I had to go through tens of thousands of transactions. There were transactions on the business debit card for Uber Eats, Dominos and Apple Airpods in the run up to Christmas when you are buying Christmas presents. 

'There were also perfume, horse riding saddle covers and those sorts of things which a preschool would never buy.'

At Precious's pebbledash semi-detached home on an estate a short walk from the pre-school in the seaside town of Exmouth, her husband Reece refused to comment on the case.

After the fraud was revealed, Bassetts Farm Pre-School closed down but the neighbouring primary school was able to open a nursery for the 50 children and saving the seven staff members' jobs.

Mr Moore said: 'We had no alternative other than to close it down.

'It was going to be scuppered. Nobody would take it over so we shut it down.

'Once I took over the running of the preschool, it was very close to closure, it had less than four weeks wages in the bank. And all of the bank accounts were closed down because they were used fraudulently.

'Ultimately, the reputation was going to be destroyed once this became public knowledge and I couldn't have anybody take over the running of it not knowing what was about to happen.

'The county council stopped the funding because of course there had been abuse of government funds. It was in a really bad position at that point.

'We managed to keep all the staff employed and the school was able to take on all the kids in the preschool.

'From this pit of absolute misery, something incredible has grown and we have this amazing setting now which is just great.'

Precious pled guilty to fraud at Exeter Crown Court on April 3.

At her sentencing in May, Judge Adkin spared Precious jail after she promised the money would be paid back but she was given a two-year suspended sentence with unpaid work.

Prosecutor Zoe Kuyken said the fraud was a 'significant abuse of power, trust and responsibility.'

The defendant, a former social worker, has no previous conviction, said Miss Rachel Smith in mitigation. 'At no point has she sought to minimise her offending,' she added. 

'She struggles with it every and why she did what she did.'