Susan Evans, a 57-year-old mother from Talke Pits, Staffordshire, has been jailed for 28 months after stealing £115,000 from her employer.

After joining PSB Group Ltd – a manufacturing firm based in Tunstall – as a receptionist in 1998, she was promoted to the position of administration manager in 2002. She then began paying company cheques to herself and her son for nearly 4 years.

In 2008, she was dismissed for an unrelated matter, and the owner’s daughter took over the financial management of the business. It was then that Ms Evans’ crime was discovered – it became apparent that a number of invoices had been copied and changed, and the company’s bank was able to confirm who the cheques had been paid to.

From March 2004 to January 2008, Evans paid 26 cheques worth nearly £60k into her account, as well as making another 33 cheques out to her son, taking the total amount stolen to £115,411.99.

At the Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court hearing, Evans pleaded guilty to 2 charges of theft.

Her husband died in 1996, saddling her with debts of £12,000, and she never managed to get her finances back on track.

She admitted spending the stolen money on clothes, holidays, friends and family. Whilst she used some of it to pay off loans, she still has substantial debts.

She will serve no more than 14 months in prison, after which she will be released on licence.

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