Newton Aycliffe woman unable to re-pay stolen cash (From The Northern Echo)

Newton Aycliffe woman unable to re-pay stolen cash

9:13pm Thursday 9th July 2009 in

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A SECRETARY who stole more than £100,000 from her former employers faces returning to prison because she claims she cannot afford repay her ill-gotten gains.

Emma Louise Bennett, of Rowan Place, Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, pleaded guilty to theft at Durham Crown Court in September 2007.

She was jailed for 30 months, ordered to pay back more than £48,000 by way of a confiscation order and warned she would face a further 18 months behind bars unless she made the payments.

Today lawyers for the 25-year-old told London's Court of Appeal she is a victim of the credit crunch and cannot afford to settle the rising debt.

Judges heard that Miss Bennett stole £117,000 from Newton Aycliffe engineering company Precision Toolwork Services, now PTSM, where she was a secretary.

She used the cash to buy a house, the value of which was taken into account when the confiscation order was set.

Her lawyers said that since then the property market has crashed and the house is in negative equity and that she lost the only job she managed to get since being released from prison when her previous convictions were discovered.

Lord Justice Thomas, Mrs Justice Dobbs and Mr Justice Wilkie were asked to quash the 18 months Bennett faces in jail if she cannot repay the sum as an 'act of mercy'.

They refused saying it would drive a 'coach and horses' through legislation designed to strip criminals of the proceeds of crime.

Miss Bennett can still argue her case in front of magistrates if she faces proceedings to commit her to prison for failure to pay the confiscation order.