A CAR dealership book-keeper who pocketed more than £26,000 and fiddled the books to cover her tracks has been jailed for 15 months.

Sentencing 39-year-old Gail Edmondson at Liverpool Crown Court last week, Judge Ian Trigger said that she had seen an opportunity, and taken it, to steal money from her employers.

"Although this money did not go on any lavish lifestyle you had expectations for a standard of living which was greater than your family finances could afford and this money went to subsidise this standard of living you had set yourself," he said.

Edmondson, of Somerville Close, Little Neston, had denied stealing £26,623 from Toyota dealership Evans Halshaw, in Wallasey, but was convicted after a trial in March.

She was cleared of eight offences of false accounting on the judge's directions.

Judge Trigger told her: "It is not an exaggeration to say it is an utter tragedy to see you in the position in which you find yourself in today.

"You are married with a young family and many people speak highly of your many good qualities and you are regarded by the world generally as being a caring mother and a good wife.

"But the jury found you guilty on quite clear evidence of a very serious offence of dishonesty," he said.

During her trial, the court heard that the theft, which spanned 18 months, came to light in July 1996 when accountants discovered a £110,00 discrepancy in company books.

She denied knowing about it or the whereabouts of the bank paying-in books. But when told the police would have to be brought in, she went to her car and produced two paying-in books.

She admitted having £114,000-worth of cheques and cash at home which she had not paid in for the firm.

Mother-of-two Edmondson told the jury that she had not acted dishonestly. She claimed she had been in a muddle and had not always had time to bank the cheques the day they were received.

Her barrister, Mr. Gerald Baxter, said that Edmondson, who has no previous convictions, still maintained her innocence.

He said she is unlikely to re-offend and her imprisonment would have a devastating effect on her family, particularly her two children.

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