Charity worker stole Alton Tower and Legoland passes meant for dying children

A charity worker who sold Alton Towers and Legoland tickets meant for terminally ill children on eBay has been jailed.

Heidi Bucknall, 32, stole more than £30,000 from the Parents’ Association for Seriously Ill Children – the same organisation that helped her own family when she had cancer as a child.

The admin assistant’s main role was to liaise with attractions and book events or days out to give dying children and their families ‘the opportunity to spend precious time together’.

But she swiped free day passes and sold them online. When they dried up during the pandemic she began inventing sick children to pocket the financial support they would be entitled to.

Jailing her for two years and four months, Judge Steven Coupland said: ‘It is difficult to think of a more appalling series of offences.

‘You, out of everyone, well understood the good work the charity that employed you did for people because you were a cancer survivor yourself.

‘This was an appalling betrayal of terminally ill children, and you deprived them and their families of a little bit of light.

‘Your theft was from a company but in real terms it was stealing from those who the charity was here to help.’

Abigail Hill, prosecuting, said: ‘Between May 22, 2015, and April 22, 2021, this defendant systematically and deliberately defrauded the charity PASIC – the Parents’ Association for Seriously Ill Children – to the tune of just over £30,000.

‘The charity, which is based on the children’s oncology ward at the QMC in Nottingham, is relatively small in size, with only five members of staff on the payroll.

‘But they provide invaluable financial and emotional support to families at a very vulnerable time, both at the QMC and at Leicester Royal Infirmary.

‘The defendant, herself a survivor of childhood cancer, exploited the very charity which had once supported her in two principal ways.

‘Firstly, by selling off on eBay gifted vouchers to theme parks and attractions designed to provide suffering children and their families the opportunity to spend precious time together.

‘And secondly by inventing sick and indeed deceased children so that she could pocket the financial support that those fabricated families would be eligible for.’

Over a two-year period, she pocketed 10 compassionate grants of £750 each, as well as 10 standard £200 payments – totalling £9,500.

Defending, Gareth Gimson said: ‘On any level this is awful, it can’t be suggested otherwise.

‘She has stolen from a children’s cancer charity. Walk a mile in her shoes – the walls came tumbling in. There is shame about what she has done but she admitted it in interview.

‘She has lived through three years of absolute fear waiting for this moment. This is not a crime committed by a cynical member of staff. She herself was a victim of childhood cancer.’

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