HAULAGE firm owner John Keeping is waiting to find out whether a woman who stole £164,196.34 from his business while his wife was dying of cancer will be jailed next week.
Lesley Cross, 62, now living in Scunthorpe, Humberside, appeared at Swindon Crown Court on May 2 where she pleaded guilty to a total of 23 fraud-related offences against Keeping Transport Ltd and Keeping Group Services Ltd of Swindon.
Cross also admitted three offences of obtaining services by deception from finance companies including a £98,500 mortgage from Abbey National. These offences were all committed when she still lived in the Swindon area.
The court heard Cross was employed by John Keeping since 1995, firstly to assist his wife Sally in the office of Keeping Transport Group Services Ltd, but was given more responsibility as Sally's health deteriorated.
Cross began stealing from the company two months before Sally's death, and this continued until the company went into liquidation on April 12, 1999.
John Keeping began trading again in July 1999, the court heard, and Cross then began stealing from the new company in October 1999 until she was arrested on May 26, 2001.
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