Skegness accountant jailed after stealing over £125k from employers

A 56-year-old Skegness accountant who stole over £125,000 from three employers has been jailed for 28 months.

Jane Moore carried out the thefts over a 10 year period, stealing over £75,000 from J D Birch, a family garage in Sutton on Sea, and a further £50,000 from decorators J A Vickers.

Lincoln Crown Court heard Moore simply transferred the money into her own account after encouraging both businesses to move to computer banking.

Moore also admitted stealing a smaller sum of £780 from North Shore Holiday Centre on Roman Bank.

The court heard Peter Birch discovered the thefts from his business when he noticed an unusual transaction on a paper bank statement.

He confronted Moore, who had worked for him since 2011, and she admitted being disgusted by what she had done.

Investigations showed Moore had transferred £73,000 in to her own account and also falsified two cheques to the value of £2,513.

Moore’s theft from J A Vickers was discovered when the business fell victim to an unrelated incident of computer hacking.

Investigations showed Moore had stolen £50,000 from the business in 14 high value transactions over a ten year period.

As the business became less profitable due to the thefts, the owners were forced to remortgage their homes and cash in a pension.

The court heard both businesses were run by 67-year-old owners who had now been forced to postpone their retirements.

Ian Way, mitigating, said Moore had wanted to plead guilty from the moment matters came to light.

He said: “She is a woman of 56 with no previous convictions whatsoever.

“There was no high living. She can only explain that she took money to pay bills which never seemed to be settled and it became a spiral.”

Way said somewhat unusually Moore had assets of over £100,000 to help pay back some compensation to the victims.

Moore of Burghley Road, Skegness, admitted five charges of fraud and theft over a 10 year period up until December 2015.

Passing sentence Judge John Pini QC told Moore: “Had you not been caught I believe there is little doubt you would have continued to behave in this way.”