Finance boss told to pay back stolen cash or face return to jail

Emma Ellis was jailed for two years last October after she admitted swindling more than £250,000 from family-run business Shaws Pickles, based in Moldgreen, Huddersfield.

The 40-year-old, who has since been released from jail, appeared before a judge at Bradford Crown Court yesterday for a hearing under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

The court heard Ellis gained £253,477 from her crimes but her realisable assets amounted to only £35,618 – which she must pay back within the next six months or face being locked up again for 15 months.

Ellis, of Highroyd, Lepton, was taken on by the firm after work experience two decades ago.

Although she had no professional accountancy qualifications, she worked her way up and took responsibility for the firm’s financial matters in 1995.

But in 2004, she began inflating invoices to suppliers and paying regular sums of money into her own bank account, continuing to do so until she was caught in 2010.

At her sentencing last year, the court heard Ellis was so trusted in her position that company directors would sign blank cheques, which she then made payable to herself.

She used some of the stolen cash to treat herself to lavish holidays, including trips to Florida and Ibiza costing £2,500 each.

She also financed two cars, splashed out on electrical goods and paid off credit card bills.

Ellis was caught in July 2010 while she was on holiday when a colleague checked the accounts and noticed an invoice had been falsified. The married mother-of-one was suspended and the scale of her crimes then emerged.

Ellis, who had no previous convictions, admitted a series of offences relating to money transfers by deception and fraud.

Her barrister, Christopher Tehrani, said she had “panicked” faced with debts of £17,000 from credit cards and bank loans.