Luxury lifestyle of woman who stole £249k

prison for worker who kept theft hidden for five years

A WOMAN stole almost a quarter of a million pounds from the firm she worked for and bought holidays, gifts and lavish beauty treatments.

Catherine martin, of Belper, raided accounts while working as an admin assistant.

A BELPER woman stole thousands of pounds over five years from the company she and her husband worked for and bought expensive holidays, gifts and lavish beauty treatments.

Catherine Martin took a combined total of £249,000 from deposit accounts while working as an administration assistant at Mediholdings, now Henry Shein, between 2012 and 2017.

She then altered spreadsheets to hide her offending, where she would take between £5,000 - £8,000 a time, before both her and her husband were sacked.

The court heard how the husband had no involvement in Martin’s offending.

Wearing a black dress with white spots, she wept in court as she was sentenced to two years and eight months in prison at Derby Crown Court.

Martin, of Cook Close, Belper, had no previous convictions. She had pleaded guilty to counts of fraud by abuse of position and false accounting in February.

The court heard from prosecutors that the offending had cost her former employers more than £100,000 to investigate and correct. But it also heard how the defendant had struggled with personal and family issues, with Judge Shaun Smith QC acknowledging that the offending was a “compensation for what was happening in your personal life”. Sarah Phelan, defending, said Martin had a “particularly challenging childhood” and while she “accepts that she had nice things”, said her client committed the offences to “make herself feel good”.

She said: “She did what many people do when they feel down and low - people spend money.

“She is of positive good character and from the outset she wishes to apologise to the company. She recognises that it passes the custodial threshold.

“Her offending has caused lifechanging damage to her relationships and she is wholly at fault in that respect.”

Sentencing, Judge Shaun Smith QC said: “You are somebody who has clearly positive good character, but for five years you stole from the company that employed you and your husband.

“They were small amounts because that was easy for you to cover up and cover up you did. This was a calculated series of offences over five years.

“You covered it up so well that no one discovered it for five years. People don’t earn that money. People live on a fifth of that money and don’t steal from other people and that is what you did.

“You did not spend it on living hand to mouth, you spent it on luxuries.

“The public would think that something was seriously wrong if I did not send you to prison.”

A separate hearing to discuss how the stolen money will be recovered is set to be scheduled following the sentencing.

Mediholdings, which is based in Belper, declined to comment when approached by the Derby Telegraph.

People live on a fifth of that money and don’t steal from other people and that is what you did.

Judge Shaun Smith