The point is that they had to confess. Otherwise it would certainly have been revealed in court. They didn't do it because they felt guilty, they confessed because they knew they had no choice. The meeting had been discussed by someone with the fraud department prior to JM and SB's visit to the bank, probably to pressure them not to prosecute despite that being the bank's policy. Jones conveniently was off work so there was no log entry of his whereabouts. Even if the stuff was given away it didn't matter because the cheques would be made out to the shops who could then identify the girls.