PENSIONER Margaret Lesley Cross has been jailed for two years after swindling a Swindon transport boss out of £164,000 while his wife was dying of cancer.

Cross, 62, shed a tear as Swindon Crown Court heard how she ripped off haulage boss John Keeping for four years where, as an employee, she wrote fraudulent cheques payable to her sister's name which she pocketed herself.

She also admitted obtaining a £95,000 mortgage by deception and taking out fraudulent loans totalling £17,000.

She pleaded guilty to 23 counts of false accounting and obtaining money by deception, and asked for 110 counts to be taken into consideration.

Imposing the jail term the recorder, Mr Douglas Field told her: "You set up a sophisticated and persistent scheme of dishonesty. The main loser is John Keeping the effect on him emotionally and financially is he is devastated. He built up the company with hard work, lost his wife, and you took advantage of the situation."

After the hearing Mr Keeping, boss of Keeping Transport Ltd based on the former Bamptons site in Stratton, said: "She's got her just desserts. She was always very nice, always willing to help out and assist my company. But it was for her own ends and I was very shocked to find out about her. My wife had cancer, and its all so bad what Cross has done. My view is that she's let down the female race."

Prosecuting, Stephen Dent, described how Cross carried out the fraud against Mr Keeping's firm Keeping Transport Group Services. When that stopped trading after profits nose-dived, Cross helped him to set up Keeping Transport Ltd and she continued to steal from that.

Her offending came to light, Mr Dent said, when she went on holiday and part-time invoice clerk Tracey Fordham discovered cheque stubbs made out to fictional suppliers.

Mr Dent added that Cross admitted forging her husband Donald's signature to re-mortgage her home, as well as using her sister Julie Handley's name to take out two loans.

Defending, James Scobie said Cross had paid back some of her mortgage scam money after selling her home in Queensfield, Swindon.

He said Cross, who was extremely remorseful, had been landed with a £10,000 tax bill after her accountant failed to pay the Inland Revenue on her behalf.

"Maybe that was a factor that made her vulnerable financially and emotionally," said Mr Scobie. "This is not a lady who has vast sums of money stored away. She's not lived the life of Riley and she has no assets at all."

Mr Keeping is now pursuing a "substantial claim" against Cross through the civil court.