A WIRRAL sub-post master's wife has been jailed for two-and-a-half years.

Elizabeth Roberts had been convicted by a Liverpool Crown Court jury in March of stealing almost £46,500.

Jailing 48-year-old Roberts, judge Recorder Mark Turner said that over 12 months she had stolen an average of £1,000 a week from Central Park sub-Post Office in Liscard. He said he accepted there was no evidence of a luxurious lifestyle or where the missing cash has gone.

"It may be you take the secret of what you did with the money to your grave. You were placed in a position of substantial trust and effectively took over the role of sub-post mistress," he said. "You had responsibility to Post Office Counters for accounting for the entirety of the cash that came over counter. Regrettably you abused that trust."

He said she had carried out the fraud with persistence, taking money over 53 weeks.

She had been sub-post mistress in all but name and after taking over the business in 1995 she had quickly taken over the financial affairs, he said.

Roberts, of Queensway, Wallasey, had been convicted of 53 theft charges between October 1996 and November 1997. She denied the allegations and said she had not stolen any money. She also said that other staff had access to where the money was counted and kept.

Recorder Turner said the least attractive part of the presentation of her case had been to name an innocent employee as a potential perpetrator.

During her trial, the court heard that inquiries by Post Office investigators revealed discrepancies between the benefit dockets sent by the sub-Post Office to headquarters in Northern Ireland and the cash allegedly paid out.

Her barrister Peter Davies said that she was a qualified nurse and before taking over the business had successfully run her own nursing home.

She and her husband now owe a substantial bank loan and face bankruptcy proceedings.

Mr Davies said that Roberts would not be able to work again and may lose her nursing qualifications because of the offence. She had worked hard and been a law-abiding citizen and this conviction was "a terrible punishment, humiliation and disgrace," he said.

Roberts had always been regarded as a woman of honesty and integrity and references included one from her commercial solicitor.

Mr Davies said that she has been unwell and suffering from depression and panic attacks and this case had been hanging over her head for 18 months.

She had three children including a 16-year-old boy who is still at school, he added.

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