Travel agent who stole £82k is spared jail

A trusted travel company boss who stole almost £83,000 from the Midland firm where she worked has been spared an immediate jail term – so she can keep her new job.

Sally Lane, who blew the cash on holidays and other luxuries, was told she would become a "burden on the state" if she went to jail.

Lane, from Pelsall, Walsall, offered to repay Bowen Travel at a rate of £800-a-month when she appeared at Wolverhampton Crown Court yesterday.

The 39-year-old manager pocketed the cash from currency exchange deals at the branch in Aldridge, which she ran for more than two years before the fraud was unearthed.

She simply pocketed cash she was supposed to be banking for the firm.

Lane has since got another job in the travel industry, which, the court heard, she would lose if she was locked up.

Judge Michael Dudley said he would let her stay free to carry on working and stop taxpayers having to foot the bill for her crime.

"If you went to prison you would find it very difficult to work again and would become a burden on the state for the rest of your working life," he said.

Lane, of Fordbrook Lane, previously pleaded guilty to theft. She was given a 12-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, and ordered to do 300 hours unpaid work.

She is also due to face a proceeds of crime hearing.

Prosecutor Mr Harinderpal Dhami said Lane took sterling cash from the currency exchange section of the business and used it as "if it was her own".

"She was able to operate without intervention from senior colleagues because they placed a high degree of trust in her," he said.