Thieving clerk will have to sell house to repay employer
A TRUSTED accounts clerk who stole more than £330,000 from her employer will have to sell her house to repay some of the money.
Beverley Pearce, 54, was jailed after she admitted stealing from Pontypridd-based building company Brecongate – her employer of 16 years – putting jobs at risk.
In a victim impact statement read at her sentencing hearing in February, managing director Paul Jones said: “The money she has taken has damaged our business.”
The court heard the mother of two pocketed a total of £339,817.82 between 2011 and 2016.
During a Proceeds of Crime Act hearing at Cardiff Crown Court prosecutor Claire Pickthall said the defendant had £46,209.84 available.
She asked the judge to make a confiscation order, with the money to be paid in compensation to Brecongate.
Clare Wilks, defending, said her client would need to sell her house to raise the funds.
She asked for three months – the maximum period allowed – for Pearce to pay the money.
If the defendant does not pay in that time she could go to prison for 12 months, although she can apply for an extension.
She was jailed earlier this year for 32 months after she pleaded guilty to theft.
Pearce, from Poplar Road in Rhydyfelin, started the offending when she could not afford to pay her mortgage.
Ms Wilks said her client was addicted to online gambling.
Judge Thomas Crowther QC told her at the sentencing hearing: “You have lost your good name.”