A Shropshire woman was today jailed for four years after stealing more than £300,000 from her employer.

Marilyn Parkes, 59, denied transferring £314,000 from Perry and Williamson in Newport, where she was a bookkeeper, secretary and accountant, into her own account between 2002 and 2006.

But a jury at Shrewsbury Crown Court today convicted Parkes, of Loak Road, in Albrighton, of one count of theft.

The jury cleared her of two other allegations of theft on the direction of Judge Robert Trevor-Jones.

The trial had heard Parkes claim that she had transferred the money at the instigation of company boss David Perry.

She claimed he had told her to transfer cash into an account set up by herself before handing over some of the cash to him.

However, Mr Perry said he had not instructed Parkes to withdraw money and only became aware she was doing so when he noticed an un-known name on the payroll.

He told the court after becoming suspicious he made some inquiries and realised the account details for the fake employee, N Gittings, were the same as Parkes’s. It was then he contacted the police.

Judge Trevor-Jones said an aggravating feature of the offence was Parkes had attempted to blacken Mr Perry’s name.

The judge said: “This offence reflects a sustained dishonesty on your part.

“You began to milk the company from the outset

“You were in charge of the financial side of the business.”

The judge said Mr Perry had looked upon Parkes as a mother-like figure and added the case had taken an inordinate amount of time to come to court.

The court was told Parkes had one previous conviction for theft in 1996 when she stole cash from another employer.

Miss Jennifer Joseph, for Parkes, said her client suffered from ill health and had been on medication for severe depression for several years.

The court previously heard that about 15 members of staff were made redundant from the firm in 2006 as a result of the financial situation the company found itself in.

By Iain St John