A THIEVING company accounts manager contributed to the family business going into administration, a court heard.

Amanda Elizabeth Waterworth took more than £40,000 which should have been paid to sub-contractors of the business, Wilkinson Building and Maintenance, to help meet her own debts and pay off loans.

But Durham Crown Court heard she also enjoyed a holiday, bought new clothes and kept a horse in livery during that time.

Waterworth joined the company, based on Belmont Industrial Estate, Durham, in September 2014, starting as an accounts assistant.

But she was made accounts manager, for a probationary period, in 2015, with her duties including making payments to sub-contractors and keeping a record of such outgoings.

By August that year her probationary period was ended and on November 4 she resigned, after company director Susan Anderson raised concerns.

Peter Sabiston, prosecuting, said police were contacted in February 2016 after a shortfall became apparent in payments to sub-contractors, who complained that they had not been fully paid.

Records stated that two contractors in particular had been paid, but by bank transfer from the defendant’s own account.

It was discovered more than £100,000 of company money, in 18 transactions, was paid into her account, but roughly only half was then paid to sub-contractors.

Mr Sabiston said only Waterworth’s monthly wages should have gone into her account.

One principal sub-contractor was only paid £48,000, but £89,562 was paid into her account to cover those payments for that period.

When she was arrested she claimed she had lost some bank details and so paid money into her own account and then on to the sub-contractors, to avoid getting into trouble.

She claimed she had not set out with the intention of stealing, but accepted taking money without authority from about July 2015.

Waterworth told police she had asked the company for financial help, but when that was not forthcoming, she deliberately took the money.

But she accepted her personal expenditure included a holiday and payments for a horse.

Mr Sabiston said Mrs Anderson spoke of the “catastrophic” effect Warterworth’s activities have had on the company, which went into administration, with the loss of ten jobs.

She has also had to dip into the company pension fund and used up her own family’s savings to try to prop up the business.

Mrs Anderson said a “substantial part” of the company’s problems was down to the defendant’s fraud and its good name, built up over 25 years, was tarnished by her actions.

Waterworth, 46, of Beech Grove, Ferryhill, admitted fraud by abuse of position.

The court heard she has a previous fraud conviction, committed between 2007 and 2009, for which she received a non-custodial sentence, in 2012.

Victoria Lamballe, mitigating, said Waterworth has suffered a significant family tragedy in recent years and was left with post-traumatic stress disorder.

But she added that the defendant felt, “utter shame and embarrassment” at her offending, and accepted it contributed to the company’s woes.

Jailing her for three years, Judge Simon Hickey said he could not impose any more lenient sentence due to the “significant impact” the offence has had on the company.

He told her: “The families of those ten workers made redundant don’t deserve to be in such a position.”

Due to the parlous state of her own finances the only financial penalty levied against Waterworth was the £120 statutory court surcharge, as the Crown took the view she does not have the wherewithal to meet any crime proceeds compensation claim.