CLERK'S £56,000 LAVISH LIFESTYLE (From Warrington Guardian)

CLERK'S £56,000 LAVISH LIFESTYLE

A MOULTON accounts clerk fiddled the books of a multi-million pound company to finance a lavish lifestyle for herself and her husband, a jury has been told.

Knutsford Crown Court heard how over a 12-month period, £56,000 was taken from two companies by Claire Poole, who was employed as a part-time clerk.

Poole, now aged 22, and her husband Roy Helling, aged 31, paid £5,000 for a horse, £9,200 in cash for a horsebox and paid £7,000 in cash for a motorcycle, the prosecution has alleged.

And when police raided the couple's home in Regent Street last April, they found a holdall containing £8,800 in cash, the court heard.

Poole has denied 17 counts of theft and Helling has denied three counts of handling stolen property.

Prosecuting, Robin Spencer QC claimed that the two companies owned by Nicholas Holland - Caravan Court at Cranage, Holmes Chapel and Spinney Motors, at Chelford, near Knutsford - had substantial turnovers totalling £12 million.

Poole had been employed there since 1995 as a part-time £7,500-a-year accounting clerk, responsible for the bookkeeping and preparing the bank paying-in book.

Mr Spencer alleged that when her employer became suspicious between 1997 and April last year, Poole had syphoned off at least £56,000, either in cash or by using credit cards to transfer money to her bank account.

Mr Spencer said that a month after her arrest, Poole had admitted to police that she had stolen around £10,000 in cash but later denied taking the money, suggesting that others had access to the cash.

There were deficiencies in the way the cash was handled at the companies and it was not until February 1998 that it was installed in a safe, Mr Spencer said.

But Poole was the only one with access to cover up the thefts in the computerised bookkeeping system.

It was not a coincidence that at the time large sums of money were being stolen, large amounts of cash were being paid into her bank accounts and the couple were making large cash purchases, Mr Spencer said.

The case continues.

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