Mum ordered to pay back £250,000 she stole for lavish holidays and designer swag

A mum who stole a small fortune from her employers spent it all on lavish holidays, jewellery, and designer clothes.

Angela Boote was a long-term employee at insurance brokers Griffiths and Armour, however used her role managing the company's banking functions to pocket some cash for herself. The 53-year-old sent numerous payments, which were intended for clients, to her personal accounts, including one of her daughters and another she shared with her husband.

Sarah Griffith, prosecuting, told Liverpool Crown Court that Boote had worked for the firm since 1994 and colleagues believed she was a "trusted member of staff". Boote was reportedly "responsible for credit control, managing the company bank and credit control functions" and "initiated payments to clients in respect of refunds or overpayments of insurance premiums", the Liverpool Echo reports.

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However, in early 2017 the mother-of-two began a series of theft that ended in her redirecting a total of £255,854.32 to four bank accounts. Intead of transferring the money for refunds to clients, she would instead send the funds to herself while creating elaborate paper trails to cover her tracks.

Despite her best efforts, though, she was discovered by a client who noticed a £223 refund had not been paid into their account while she was on leave in January 2020. A co-worker addressing the complaint found that the money was sent to Boote's daughter's account, launching an internal investigation.

Forensic accountants discovered that a total of 96 fraudulent payments over a two-and-a-half-year period were made. Boote was dismissed and she admitted to her crimes during a police interview.

Lionel Grieg,