A company secretary has been warned she faces jail after she admitted swindling £400,000 from a building company and spending it on homes and holidays.
Sharron Tricker was trusted to run the finances of the Exeter based RC Contracting business but instead used its cheques to pay personal bills for more than two years.
She got away with £400,000 but the company were unable to find out where a further £250,000 had gone, Exeter Crown Court was told.
She spent £4,000 on a family holiday and used company cheques to pay off debts and to pay the rent on the home where she lived in Exeter. All of the money has vanished and she is now penniless and in debt.
Tricker, aged 42, of Higher Meadow, Cranbrook, admitted defrauding RC Contracting of £400,000 between January 2007 and March 2009.
Her husband Paul Tricker, aged 42, of Bourne Rise, Exeter, denied using criminal property and his case was ordered to lie on file, meaning it is no longer being pursued by the prosecution.
Sharron Tricker's case was adjourned for pre sentence reports by Judge Erik Salomonsen who ordered her to surrender her passport. The couple are currently separated and she is unemployed and living in rented accommodation.
He told her:"This is obviously a very serious offence. For a fraud of this amount, which went on over this period of time, prison is inevitable. That will come as no surprise to you."
Mr David Sapiecha, prosecuting, said the Crown have decided to accept Tricker's plea even though the amount involved is less than the £650,000 which is missing from the company's accounts.
He said the case against her husband was not being prosecuted because the only evidence of his involvement was that he was living in the family home at the time and enjoying the use of items bought through the fraud.
He said:"As far as at least £250,000 of cheques and cash is concerned, we cannot show where they ended up. There is always going to be a degree of fall out in the figures.
"The figure of £400,000 is the flat figure accepted by the prosecution. Our present intention is not to pursue confiscation proceedings under Proceeds of Crime because there is no evidence of any assets.
"There is no money around and the papers show an amount of debt which appears to still be there."
Miss Alison Scott-Jones, defending, said Tricker is now separated and living on her own in rented accommodation.
She said:"A prison sentence is inevitable but a pre sentence report will be helpful in providing background information. She has never been in trouble before and this is a serious offence."
