‘Reluctant’ discharge for wife in £1m theft

Simon Morgan, 50, was jailed for seven years in January after a jury found him guilty of plundering the office and client accounts at Milners, where he was a senior partner.

Morgan, and his wife Ann, who was office manager at the firm, took company money to pay for expensive family holidays abroad, flights by private jet and meals at top restaurants.

Morgan, recently of Main Street, Bilbrough near York, was found guilty by a jury at Leeds Crown Court on six charges of theft between January 2002 and July 2004.

Sentencing Morgan, Judge James Goss, QC, said it was a bad case involving substantial sums of money over a long period “purely to lead an extravagant lifestyle.”

The judge said Morgan “spun a web of lies” about his wife’s health claiming she was having treatment for cancer on trips to London and New York when they were just going away on holiday.

Ann Young-Morgan, 55, was found unfit to stand trial for psychiatric reasons but the jury decided she did the acts amounting to the six offences.

She suffers from “malignant narcissistic preoccupation” and yesterday Judge Goss, sitting at Bradford Crown Court, said he was bringing her case to an end after further discussions with counsel about any further medical assessments.

“I’m of the view that little purpose, probably no purpose, would be served by taking this matter any further at this stage,’’ the judge said.

“I do it reluctantly because I’m obviously concerned that here we have someone who has been found to have done the acts of which she stood accused but is not fit to be tried and is apparently, as I’ve found on the balance of probabilities, suffering from a condition that makes her unfit to be tried.’’