A WOMAN arrested in the US more than a decade after stealing almost £300,000 from her employer is facing a prison sentence in the UK.

The warning was given to Joanne Phillips yesterday after she admitted taking £293,257 belonging to Taylor Packaging, of Spennymoor, County Durham, in the late Nineties.

Phillips, 44, formerly known as Joanne Maudling, previously of Kirkdale in Spennymoor, emigrated to start a new life in the US in January 1999, shortly before the discrepancies arose.

She was arrested by US marshals in Texas in January and was held in federal prisons until her extradition in early March.

At the time of her arrest the former accounts clerk was living in a small town near San Antonio, Texas, and was said to have been running a landscaping company.

Phillips, who has been in custody since she was brought back to Britain, appeared at Durham Crown Court for a short plea hearing yesterday.

She admitted charges of false accounting, forgery and theft.

The charges relate to false entries made in cash books at Taylor Packaging, the payment of 94 cheques, and theft of the £293,257, all on dates between August 15, 1995, and December 16, 1998.

Phillips worked for the firm, of Meadowfield Avenue, Green Lane Industrial Estate, for 12 years and was earning £15,000 a year when she left for the US, where she was said to have a job awaiting.

Following her admissions yesterday, Phillips’ barrister, Dan Cordey, asked for sentence to be adjourned pending the preparation of reports on her by the Probation Service.

Mr Cordey told the court: “She’s been, hitherto, of good character.”

Prompted by Judge Christopher Prince, Mr Cordey conceded that she left the country in 1999. “But, she’s extremely anxious to know her fate,” added Mr Cordey.

Adjourning sentence for preparation of the reports, Judge Prince told her: “You will appreciate you will have to expect to receive a substantial custodial sentence. I appreciate you left the country as long ago as 1999, but you committed these offences and you must answer for them.”

He remanded her in custody until sentence, on Friday, May 28.