Parents' plea for mercy after daughter stole £20k from family firm
A daughter who stole £20,000 from her family's coach business has evaded jail after a plea for mercy from her parents.
Leicester Crown Court was told Susan Williams tearfully confessed her wrongdoing when confronted by her father, Kenneth Williams, managing director of Confidence Bus and Coach Limited.
Susan Williams pictured outside court
However, the company was down far more than £20,000 and it came to light that Andrew Harris, transport manager at the Oadby firm, had separately stolen at least £30,000. Harris is believed to have funded his wedding with the proceeds, as well as paying for a new car and splashing out on jewellery.
Williamss parents both wrote to Judge Robert Brown urging mercy and leniency in their daughters case. The 36-year-old mother-of-one, of Leicester Road, Groby, who was sacked from her job, wept as members of her family sat in the public gallery.
She admitted theft of about £20,000, between January 2010, and July 2012. She was given a 16- month jail sentence, suspended for two years, with 150 hours of unpaid work.
Harris (39), of Knighton Fields Road West, Aylestone, Leicester, admitted false accounting and theft on the basis he took about £30,000, although the prosecution alleged that bank account evidence suggested he might have taken up to £55,000.
He was given a 22-month jail sentence, suspended for two years, with 180 hours of unpaid work.
Both defendants face having their assets investigated and seized to compensate the business. Judge Brown told Williams: You took money over two-and-a-half years. Its shameful to steal from an employer and even more so from your own family business. I accept youve shown remorse from the outset. I am told these proceedings have brought the family closer together in a very positive way.
Judge Brown told Harris: Youve stolen from your employer and the sum is just under £30,000, but the company feel theyve lost more.
He said he was suspending the sentence as Harriss family was heavily dependent upon him.
Fay Mellor, prosecuting, said Harris was responsible for taking fares and waybills (descriptions of jobs) from the drivers and logging the figures, before passing them to Williams.
Williamss administrative duties included recording the takings on a spread sheet and banking them.
Miss Mellor said: A driver found a waybill in his name, but not his writing, and alerted the secretary, who discovered other waybills had been forged.
There was a drastic shortfall against the money taken and what was banked, amounting to about £70,000. Each denies acting with the other.
The managing director challenged the staff and, when he threatened to call police, his daughter, Susan Williams, broke down and confessed.
Miss Mellor said: Harris had also been taking money before he got married and bought a car and jewellery.
Miss Mellor said that from January 2010, a number of deposits went into his bank account, paid in coins and low denomination notes, consistent with bus fares.
Philip Gibbs, mitigating for Williams, said: She immediately owned up and it must have been extremely difficult.
James Adcock, for Harris, said: Its a personal disaster for him. Hes the author of his own misfortune.
