AN accountant who stole £55,000 from her employer to buy handbags and pay off her mortgage has been jailed for nine months.
Marcia Johnson, 35, paid herself around £4,000 more each month in wages while working at the Acton headquarters of Carphone Warehouse.
The 15 month fraud was finally spotted in July this year and she was arrested at work at her office in Wales Farm Road.
Johnson, who started work for the company in January 2007 as an accounts assistant, told police she had bought clothes and handbags with the cash.
She said most of it went towards paying off her credit cards and mortgage but later claimed it had also paid for her boyfriend's expensive cocaine habit.
Sentencing her at the Old Bailey on Thursday, Judge Brian Barker QC said the fraud was a "clear breach of trust" by the accountant.
