A bookkeeper who swindled a Larkfield family firm out of £50,000 has ended up behind bars.

Karen Thomas of Kemsley, near Sittingbourne, was trusted by Gary and Sorcha Page at the couple’s New Hythe Lane base.

But for 18 months she stole from their firm Page Pipeline Supplies to pay off gambling debts.

Mrs Page said: “We had to go down to a four-day week as we couldn’t sustain the loss and had to lose staff. My husband didn’t get paid for six months which meant we had to sell personal items, including our car, to pay our mortgage.”

Thomas, 53, who has a son and a daughter, was jailed at Maidstone Crown Court for 18 months after admitting fraud by abuse of position and a fraud by false accounting.

Mrs Page said: “Our company will take years to get back on its feet. We thought we were paying suppliers but instead the money was finding its way into her personal bank account.

"This has also affected our credit rating.”

She added: “Karen even stole money when we were at a family funeral."

Mrs Page added: “It has been devastating to us personally, and as a business, but we are determined to survive.

“I just want to make people aware of her, especially if they are a small family business like ourselves. If we can save one company from going through what we, and many before us have, from employing her then my job is done.”

In February 2013, Thomas, then known as Karen Knowles, was jailed for 18 months for taking £70,000 from White Horse Leisure at Leysdown on the Isle of Sheppey between March 2011 and June 2012 and fleecing UK Paper Leisure Club in Sittingbourne of £90,000 between March 2007 and October 2010. She had previous convictions for similar offences in 1986 and 1991.

'Karen even stole money when we were at a family funeral'

Maureen Wharton, who built up White Horse Leisure, ended up unable to pay herself a wage and sold the holiday park.

Page Pipeline Supplies, which makes parts for the mechanical and electrical industries, has been running for nine years.

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