Animal nurse ordered to repay £23.000 she stole from Yorkshire veterinary practice

A Proceeds of Crime Act confiscation hearing was held at Sheffield Crown Court on Tuesday where Melanie Beever was told she was going to have to repay a total of £23,393.57 she had stolen while working as a veterinary nurse at Greenside Vets in Mapplewell.

Beever, aged 51, of Rawmarsh in Rotherham, was last June convicted of theft having denied the charges of stealing from the vets, whose owner SImon Newbery will receive every penny of the cash seized.

Beever has been given three months by the court in which to pay the monies back, or face a 12-month default sentence of imprisonment. In court last June, Beever was handed a 21-month sentence which was suspended for two years, a nine-month curfew and an order to be electronically tagged.

Senior Financial Investigator Richard Grant, from the Barnsley POCA team, said of the decision by Judge Graham Reeds: “South Yorkshire Police are committed to pursuing the confiscation of criminals’ assets under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

“It is just, and pleasing, that any monies recovered in this particular case are rightly returned to the victim as compensation. We hope that this affords the victim some form of closure, and that it goes some way to appeasing the suffering this theft, from a long-standing employee in a position of trust, has undoubtedly caused.”

Beever had worked for Mr Newbery for 29 years, had been promoted to senior nursing assistant and was considered a family friend. She spent four years making deposits from the business into her own bank account.