Addict uses baby plea to avoid jail

AN OFFICE manager who stole thousands to fund her drug habit walked free from court after she used the birth of her baby to make a tearful plea for mercy.

Heather McCarthy, 33, plundered £7,700 in a timesheet scam at her recruitment company so she could buy cocaine.

When senior colleagues became suspicious, she quit before the thefts were discovered and later gave birth to her first child as police were about to charge her.

McCarthy, a manager for a telecoms firm, sobbed in the dock as Judge Paul Lawton said: ‘I am not going to have you separated from the child.’ She was given an eightmonth prison sentence suspended for two years after admitting fraud by deception.

Inquiries later revealed that McCarthy, of West Derby, Liverpool, had previously served a prison sentence after she was caught stealing money from two former employers.

But her bosses at Paragon Meed in Bury, Greater Manchester, were unaware of her criminal past. She only revealed the existence of her child – now ten months old – to her lawyers on the day of her sentencing at Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court.

Sentencing at a hearing on Friday, Judge Lawton said: ‘You cannot steal from your employer and ignore the consequences, especially if you have been to prison for exactly the same sort of offence.’

The court heard that the thefts occurred between June 2018 and June last year.

Prosecutor Craig MacGregor said: ‘It was found that two former employees were having timesheets submitted and monies were being paid into Miss McCarthy’s accounts.’ The court heard 20 fraudulent transactions were carried out.

Defence barrister Thomas McKail said: ‘She is very concerned about the welfare of her young child. She asks for mercy today.’