A FINANCE boss who stole almost £550,000 from her employer and "frittered" it away on luxuries for her home and expensive holidays has been jailed for four-and-a-half years.

Penelope Appleton even jetted off with her husband on an all-inclusive holiday to St Lucia in the Caribbean after she was arrested.

The 55-year-old was told by a judge that taking such a trip showed an abject lack of remorse and contrition for what she had done.

Maidstone Crown Court heard that Appleton, of Staplehurst Road, Sittingbourne, was employed as a chief cashier for Maidstone-based Hidden Hearing Ltd, earning £10,250 for 25 hours a week.

In March 1999, she discovered how easy it was to steal and over the next five-and-a-half years diverted about £100,000 a year into her own accounts.

Andrew Espley, prosecuting, said the hearing aid company, which has an annual turnover of £31million and has branches all over the country, operated a scheme which allowed customers full refunds if they were not satisfied with the product.

Twenty per cent of the business was returns. Appleton had been working for the company for 16 years and was responsible for such returns.

"She was obviously a highly-trusted and valued employee," said Mr Espley.

The offences came to light in October last year when finance director Kevin White was informed by Barclaycard fraud department that returns from Hidden Hearing were appearing in Appleton’s credit card account.

An investigation was launched and it was discovered that she had given the refunds to herself.

The total loss to Hidden Hearing was £547,305.

Mr Espley said the thefts were easy because the accounting system was not then computerised and Appleton did not have to match a refund to a sale.

The mother-of-two admitted 18 theft charges and asked for another 357 to be taken into consideration.

Kevin Sparks, defending, said: "She still cannot come to terms about how the amount has grown to. It is like Topsy. She is absolutely devastated by it."

Judge Jeremy Carey told Appleton: "You were motivated by pure greed, as demonstrated graphically by photographs which show a house full of high value consumer goods. You had a lavish lifestyle as a result of your criminal work.

"I make it plain that this is just about as bad a case of theft as is likely to come before the courts."