A greedy book-keeper has been jailed after stealing almost £190,000 from a motorbike firm – which she used to fund luxury holidays and a BOOB JOB.
Louise Taylor, 41, spent thousands of pounds jetting off to Portugal, a breast enlargement, cosmetic dental surgery, Botox and tanning treatments.
Between 2006 and 2012 she stole £186,000 from MCA (Aston) in Birmingham where she worked as the administration manager.
The single mum raided the accounts of the motorbike parts company, where she had worked since 1999.
She was jailed for two years and eight months at Birmingham Crown Court after pleading guilty to theft on August 20.
Taylor was also ordered to repay the company £47,000 through the sale of her house in Walsall, West Mids.
Judge Roderick Henderson told her: “You were involved in a severe breach of trust over a period of around six years.
“It only stopped because you were caught.”
The court heard Taylor was responsible for paying MCA’s creditors but siphoned off cash into her own account.
She would ask her boss, David Brown to sign the cheques but the money was actually transferred into her own account.
He scam was discovered when Mr Brown noticed a number of cheques had been approved for firms which the company no longer had dealings with.
Mark Phillips, prosecuting, revealed Taylor’s credit card showed she had been spending money on Amazon.
She was also spending cash at Thomas Cook, Center Parcs, Forest Holidays, holidays to Portugal and cosmetic dentistry.
David Swinnerton, defending, added the items Taylor had spent the cash on were not of the “highest ticket” and she had “stumbled” across the way of committing the crime.
MCA managing director David Brown revealed her crimes had almost brought the company to its knees.
He said: “She betrayed the company, it was by complete fluke that she was caught.
“I randomly checked the books and saw there was a lot of money missing, but I didn’t believe it.
“She had been a good employee, she was good at what she did, but I still don’t know why she did it.
“She would always say she was having work done to herself or going off on holiday but I never thought anything of it, I certainly never suspected she was stealing from the company.
“I am not a judge or a lawyer, so I have no input in her sentence, I don’t really want to say if I am happy with it or not, but she stole a lot of cash from us and nearly put us under.
“All I would like to say is that the sentence isn’t that bad for her considering she stole £186,000 from us.
“She pleaded guilty at the first attempt, at her plea and case management hearing, if she didn’t do that she would have been given four years in prison.
“I was there for the sentencing, I just don’t know why she would do this to a family-run business.
“Despite losing the money, luckily, we are now doing well and are back on our feet, which is obviously great news, it could have been a whole lot worse for us.”
Another employee, who did not want to be named, added: “She was transforming in front of our eyes.
“She had the fake boobs, cosmetic work done to her teeth, botox to her face and fake tan.
“No one could have suspected the company was paying for it.”
You need to sort your books out if my company was missing £180,000 and had not noticed I would guess its either because more hands were in the till (so no one looks) or you should not even be running a small company if you don’t see it !!!