COVENTRY MESSAGE BOARD

A woman being hunted by police following the theft of hundreds of thousands of pounds from hospital staff is a former Coventry police officer, the Telegraph has learned.



Jane Aucott was a detective at the former Little Park Street police station in the city and an international sportswoman before going off the rails.

Her photograph appeared in the Telegraph this week as part of our Caught on Camera feature as police appealed for information about her whereabouts.

During the past four years, at least 60 NHS hospitals across the country have been hit by a gang of thieves.

Police say the gang have been cheating their way into hospitals to steal handbags and wallets from staff.

The victims then receive phone calls from the thieves, who trick them into handing over their pin numbers and other personal information.

The unsuspecting victims then unwittingly hand over enough details for the fraudsters to take significant sums from their bank accounts.

Chief Inspector Kerry Blakeman told the Telegraph that Aucott is wanted for failing to appear at courts across the country and officers also want to talk to her in connection with the NHS thefts.

In February 2001, Aucott admitted three offences of taking vehicles without consent and one charge each of handling stolen goods and having no insurance at Coventry Magistrates Court.

In court, it was revealed she had a drug habit.

Athletics golden girl turned Coventry cop jailed for fraud

A FORMER Coventry detective who also represented England at the Commonwealth Games has been jailed for her role in a slick fraud gang.

Jane Aucott, 43, was a key player in a group of confidence tricksters who targeted hotels, hospitals and offices up and down the country stealing credit cards.

They then used the cards to withdraw more than £21,000 from banks.

Yesterday, Aucott was jailed for three years and eight months after admitting a string of fraud by misrepresentation charges.

Aucott, a former discus thrower, represented England in the Commonwealth Games in New Zealand before joining the police at the end of her track and field career.

But the former “golden girl” athlete spiralled into desperate drug addiction and a life of crime.

She lost her job and sank into the world of a full-time confidence trickster to pay for heroin and crack cocaine.

The 43-year-old – often disguised in a wig and poncho – used cards stolen from unsuspecting hotel conference guests to purge their bank accounts.

At Newcastle Crown Court Judge Roger Thorn said: “Your history is extraordinary by any standards.

“As a younger woman, there you were representing your country at the Commonwealth Games then joining the police force.

"Then set with a golden career no doubt, you became addicted and so you have been for many years thereafter.”

He added “You had become a fairly full-time and certainly professional confidence trickster.”

Aucott, of Willenhall, Coventry, and her gang, carried out an eight-month campaign across the country.

They would slip purses from the bags of delegates attending conferences at a range of hotels as well as targeting workers in council offices in North Tyneside and a hospital in Middlesbrough.

Prosecuting, Michael Graham said: “One victim told how her bank account was virtually emptied because of the withdrawals.”

CCTV images captured Aucott in her trademark disguise, including one which was featured in the Coventry Telegraph last June.

Her former colleagues at the West Midlands force recognised her when stills were put on their intranet.

Mr Graham said: “The prosecution say there was clear planning.

"It involved travelling about the country, the careful selecting of target events, the use of disguise and repeated offending involving multiple transactions.”

Paul Hodgkinson, defending, said Aucott had suffered a “rapid fall from grace” as her addiction took hold.

He told the court: “This is what has steered and directed her life ever since.

"She appreciates this is no way for her to live.

“She will end up going in and out of prison if she does not end up killing herself through drugs.”

Aucott’s former boyfriend, John King, also from Coventry, was jailed for 18 months at a separate hearing for his part in the frauds.

From discus to detective to drugs: The fall of Jane Aucott

IN 1986 Jane Aucott was the golden girl of discus ranked Britain’s top junior athlete in the sport.

Four years later she was ranked as the UK’s number three and was chosen to represent her country in the Commonwealth Games in Auckland, New Zealand.

After a successful athletic career she joined West Midlands Police and became a detective at Little Park Street police station.

But in 2001 she was on the other side of the law when she appeared in court for driving stolen cars.

At the time magistrates in Coventry heard Aucott, then 32, had developed a drug habit and she admitted taking vehicles without consent and handling stolen goods and was placed on probation.

Her defence lawyer at the time said the incident had been a “blip in her life” but ten years later Aucott has still not turned her back on crime.

Last June she was arrested in Tile Hill after her photograph was featured in the Telegraph linking her with a gang of thieves.