Jeanne Cox

A MERCIFUL judge has spared a desperate mum from jail after hearing how she stole more than £30,000 from her Basingstoke employer to pay off her teenage daughter's drugs debts.

Winchester Crown Court heard how Jeanne Cox swind-led money out of Trane UK, an air-conditioning firm, because she needed it to help save her drug-addicted child from threatening dealers who were demanding cash.

Cox, who lived in the Basingstoke area at the time, received an 18-month sentence, suspended for two years, after Recorder Jonathan Black conceded that there had been "exceptional circumstances" in the case.

He said: "I cannot condone what you did but I understand the intense pressures that led to you doing what you did."

Edward Phillips QC, prosecuting, said Cox, now 48, had been working as a PA in 2002 when she wrote two cheques totalling £34,056 to Shoosmiths law firm, her company's lawyers, with whom she had regular dealings.

The court was told that Cox somehow arranged for the cash to be diverted into her own account, although it was not explained how she managed this.

Her deception was discovered not long after the money went missing - but Cox kept her job at the firm, which has offices in Basing View and Bessemer Road, and was given a chance to pay back the money.

The court heard Cox was subsequently made redundant, although this was not related to the theft.

When, after five years, the money had still not been repaid, Cox was reported to the police and charged with theft.

The court heard how Cox - who pleaded guilty to two counts of theft - had convictions in the 1980s for bouncing cheques.

Fern Russell QC, defending, told the court how Cox wrote the cheques in the 1980s because her first husband was abusive and did not give the family enough money for essentials.

The court heard Cox committed the theft from Trane UK while desperate to save her daughter from drug dealers who wanted their money.

The judge was told Cox's daughter began abusing drugs at the age of 16. By 17, Miss Russell said her client's daughter had moved to London where she used cocaine and ran up huge debts with drug dealers who began threatening her to pay up.

The barrister said Cox was left to pick up the bill and had to finance her daughter's move away to help her overcome her addiction. It was against this background that Cox had been tempted into stealing.

Miss Russell said Cox, who now lives in Bath, meant to pay the money back but struggled to do so after losing her job.

She said: "She obtained the money as a desperate measure to take care of her daughter who has a severe drug addiction.

"She has given up her life, her respectability, everything, to look after her child.

"It was a serious breach of trust but it was for understandable reasons."

9:47am Friday 9th May 2008

Print

Email this