Report by COURT REPORTER

AN accounts clerk who doctored company records to pay for her lavish lifestyle has been jailed for 21 months.

Claire Poole stole £56,000 from her employer, spending the money on a horse, a horsebox and a motorcycle. A holdall containing nearly £9,000 in cash was later found at her home by detectives.

The 22-year-old, of Chester Lane, Winsford, appeared at Chester Crown Court on Thursday last week. She admitted 17 counts of theft, and she also asked for six other similar offences to be taken into consideration.

Her husband, Roy Helling, 31, admitted three counts of handling stolen property. He was jailed for six months.

The money came from Caravan Court in Cranage and Holmes Chapel, and Spinney Motors at Chelford, near Knutsford, where Poole was working as a part-time clerk.

Poole's employer, Nicholas Holland, eventually became suspicious after she began living an extravagant lifestyle, well beyond the means of her £7,500 salary.

Robin Spencer QC, prosecuting, explained that she covered her tracks by manipulating the firm's computerised accounting system.

Poole had worked for the firm since 1995 and was responsible for looking after the bookkeeping and the bank paying-in book.

The defendant changed her plea midway through her trial after originally claiming that she had earned the money through buying and selling horses and from her husband's building business.

Helling admitted that money from her thefts was transferred into his bank account.

Gordon Cole, defending Poole, asked for her guilty plea to be taken into account, even though it occurred midway through the trial.

He continued: "She feels a burden of guilt after getting her husband involved. It is her dishonesty that has got him in trouble."

Duncan Bould, speaking for Helling, added: "He did what he did out of loyalty. He did nothing when he should have done something and now realises the stupidity of his actions."

Judge Geoffrey Kilfoil told the pair: "You were both convicted of serious offences of dishonesty.

"You dealt a serious breach of trust to Poole's previous employer. He trusted her but you exploited a weakness."

Judge Kilfoil also ordered that a restitution order in the sum of £8,900 be paid to Mr Holland as way of compensation for his loss.

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