Employee swindled £200,000 from boss

May 10 2008 by Hilary Clixby and Paul Loraine, The Journal

AN accounts manager was behind bars last night after repaying her employer’s trust by swindling him out of more than £200,000 in a carefully-worked fraud.

Melanie Middleton, of Thornton’s Close, Pelton, near Chester-le-Street, had been a valued member of staff with Gateshead-based Fossway Builders Merchants Ltd since joining the firm as a teenager.

The 44-year-old was so well thought of by company director George Neale he had trusted her implicitly and even treated her as part of his family, Newcastle Crown Court heard.

But for seven years she secretly plundered the firm’s cash and doctored the accounts to cover her tracks, the court was told.

And by the time the fraud was discovered following the sale of the company in December 2006, she had stolen £205,000, said Julian Smith, prosecuting yesterday.

The deception left Mr Neale devastated, according to a victim impact statement.

Last night, Mr Neale who is 73 and lives in Morpeth, Northumberland, said the punishment did not fit the crime.

Married Middleton, who claimed some of the money was spent on a relationship with a younger man, admitted stealing the money between January 2000 and December 2006 and false accounting.

She was jailed for 15 months by Judge David Hodson who told her: “You were in a position of trust. You were in an especial position of trust so far as Mr Neale was concerned. He had implicit faith in you and you betrayed him.

“You not only let him down, you have let your own family down and they must be shellshocked at what has happened over this long period of time without them having any knowledge of what you were doing.”

Jason Smith, defending, said Middleton started stealing money initially at a fairly modest level as a result of mounting debts due to she and her husband living beyond their means.

“Unfortunately for her, she became involved in a relationship with a younger man 13 years her junior and she felt somewhat enamoured by the fact she had received attention from a younger man,” he said. “As a consequence, she continued to take money at a rather more substantial level.

“The relationship was funded entirely by her and continued for a number of years. She is a woman without previous convictions never known to police, not even for a speeding ticket.”

Mr Smith said there were concerns that Middleton was ill-equipped to cope with prison and she apologised profusely for what she had done.

Speaking after the sentencing yesterday, Mr Neale said: “As far as the sentence is concerned, I am certainly not happy with someone who has done that over seven years and getting out with that.

“I was saddened by the judge’s decision.

“The sentence doesn’t fit the crime. I didn’t even think she would have done this to me – she was part of the family.

“I actually feel sorry for her family – they are nice people. It’s probably as big a shock for them as it is for me.”