Bridesmaid admits stealing £3,000 hen do cash

CHIEF bridesmaid Charlene Whittaker turned into a real party pooper when she pocketed £3,000 of her pals’ hen do holiday money.

She had collected the money after offering to organise a trip to Benidorm for her lifelong friend and bride-to-be Nadine Kelly and her friends.

But instead of booking the air tickets, she claimed that the flights had been cancelled because of the eruption of the the Icelandic volcano last year.

This week Charlene (29), whose address was given in court as Rackford Road, North Anston, but is now believed to live in Worksop, was ordered to carry out 80 hours’ unpaid work when she admitted theft at Rotherham Magistrates’ Court.

She was also ordered to pay £1,410 compensation with £75 costs.

Nadine (30), of Cedric Crescent, Thurcroft, said the trip had been planned for last May last year, but Charlene had been collecting money from hens for a year before that.

But just days before the 30-strong party was due to fly out, she had claimed that the flights were off because of the volcanic ash cloud.

But when Nadine’s sister-in-law rang the airline, she was told the flight had not been cancelled . . . and the girls had never been booked on it in the first place.

Nadine, who runs the Millionhair salon in Brecks\!q, and her friends made their own arrangements to fly out to Spain and she married fiancee James Kelly in September.

Some of the money had been repaid via Charlene’s mother, but after the honeymoon, she and the other hen party guests got together and decided to call the police.

BETRAYED BRIDE: I thought she was my best friend. Read Nadine’s reaction in this week’s Advertiser.