An accountant stole more than £2.4m from companies she worked for in order to fund her gambling addiction.
Jemma Lewis, 40, who was on a £200,000 salary, stole money from five businesses with the same family of companies, Newport Crown Court heard.
Her actions caused considerable stress to other members of staff, causing one director to leave, another to lose out on his salary, and one woman unable to access her pension.
Lewis, of Wolverhampton, pleaded guilty to five counts of fraud by abuse of position and was sentenced to five years in prison, with each charge to run concurrently.
Her actions also meant that the companies, owned by James Davies, did not contribute enough tax.
Mr Davies said Lewis was like a daughter to him, and felt like family.
The five companies she committed fraud against included Daisy Vale Limited, Charnwood Accounts, Edward Davies Construction and Fastnet Properties Ltd.
Alex Orndal, prosecuting, told the court that Lewis began working for Mr Davies in 2007, first holding a role as a receptionist.
By 2017 she was the accountant for the group of companies after she had her accountancy training funded by the company.
However, when the company moved over to an online banking system financial problems began to arise.
For the first time, the company began to see a substantial and unexplained downturn in profits.
When suspicions were raised over an increase in third party payments, Lewis officially resigned in 2023 and a new accountant took over.
When Lewis contacted Mr Davies about her severance payment he noticed a link between her account details and a number of other payments on the account.
Mr Orndal said: “Instead of paying third party people she had been paying herself and disguising them as proper payments.”
Between 2018 and 2023, the total payments to her account exceeded £3.6m, with the total being more than £2.4m after her salary and other legitimate payments had been deducted.
Mr Orndal said that £1.4m of this was sent to known gambling companies but this figure is likely to be higher as it is difficult to identify all gambling companies.
She also spent £67,000 on crypto companies and £9,000 on FairFX, a bank which accepts payments in different currencies.
Despite already fraudulently stealing millions from the businesses, Lewis also asked Mr Davies to loan her £163,000 to help her buy a house, but the money was eventually repaid by her mother and brother.
In a victim impact statement, Mr Davies said Lewis’s crimes had “affected the lives of countless people” and she had also taken money from the taxpayer.
Mr Davies said one member of staff had been unable to withdraw her pension, despite working at the company for many years, because Lewis did not fund it correctly.
In a victim impact statement, former director Mark Cotter said that the stress on him had led to his GP making him take four to six weeks off work.
“I felt forced to leave the company that I had spent a lot of my life trying to build,” he added.
“I’m in disbelief that all of this happened because of Jemma Lewis.”
Neil Corre, for the defendant, said she was in this position due to her gambling addiction.
He said she did not gamble to win but to continue gambling, adding she had now been free of the addiction for more than a year.
Mr Corre said she hoped to use her experience to help others.
“She has lost her job, her home and she may lose her liberty, but her moral compass has been restored,” he said.
Sentencing Lewis, Judge Daniel Williams said: “You have been a gambler for years, since you were 18 and long before you were employed by James Davies.
“Your upbringing was privileged but also blighted by trauma and sadness.”
