Design firm laid-off staff due to manager's £900k fraud

A finance manager who stole £877,000 from the design company she worked for has been jailed for four years.

Clare Roberts, 50, stole about £100,000 a year from Moore and Moore Design in Devon, Exeter Crown Court was told.

She used the money for holidays, paying off debts, her son's university fees and her mother's mortgage, the court heard.

Sentencing Roberts, who admitted two fraud charges, the judge said her dishonesty was "startling".

Roberts enjoyed the total trust of business founder Helen Moore and stole so much from the Witheridge-based firm that it shrank from employing 50 people to being on the verge of collapse, the court heard.

She joined the firm in December 2010 as a bookkeeper but was promoted to finance manager and began stealing large amounts within months.

She was only caught because the bank suggested that Mrs Moore bring in an outside finance director, the court was told.

In a victim impact statement, 76-year-old Mrs Moore said the thefts had "a devastating impact on our family" which saw Roberts "ripping our business apart, brick by brick".

She said: "We have nothing to show for 40 years of hard work."

Judge David Evans told Roberts, of Langley Gardens, Chulmleigh: "Your dishonesty is startling in its depth and persistence.

"You chose actively to steal and deceive every time you took money ... and every time you covered it up afterwards."

Prosecutor Mr Lee Bremridge said there would be no Proceeds of Crime Act confiscation because all the money had been spent and Roberts had no assets.

Defending, Peter Lownds said Roberts was remorseful and had large debts when she started stealing, as well as suffering from depression when she carried out much of the fraudulent behaviour.