A COLD-HEARTED woman defrauded a beauty salon out of £17,000 while she was pretending to help it through the tragic death of its owner.

Danielle Pisani, 34, overpaid herself while she was business manager at Moors Health and Beauty, and used a company credit card to go on shopping sprees at Ikea and Primark.

Pisani had worked at the firm, which has salons in Pier Avenue, Clacton and Head Street, Colchester – for more than ten years alongside founder Sharon Moor.

The pair were close friends and Pisani helped to run the business when Miss Moor was waiting for a kidney transplant.

Miss Moor died in March 2013 and her family, including mother Freda, carried on the salons in her memory and for her son Harvey.

Pisani, of Springfield Meadows, Little Clacton, continued working for the company and supported the family while they were grieving.

However, in October 2014 Freda Moor became suspicious after checking holiday wages and found Pisani had overpaid herself.

Further checks of business accounts, payments and bank statements uncovered a web of deceit which meant she had taken cash and goods worth £17,738.

She said: “I checked the holiday wages four times and each time it said she had been overpaying herself.

“I was lying in bed and a little voice was saying to me, ‘Look at the bank statements and the wages’.

“When I checked she had been overpaying herself. Cash had been taken out and the company card was being used in Ikea and Primark.

“At the end of the month we brought her into a disciplinary hearing and she admitted what she had done and started crying telling me howmuch she loved us all and she had loved Sharon.

“We are a very close family and I treated her like a surrogate daughter.”

The family had treated Pisani to day trips to London and holidays to Spain during her employment to thank her for her support after Sharon’s death.

Mrs Moor said: “The sad thing is if she had come to me and told me she was in financial trouble I would have done what I could to help.

“She could have talked to us about anything.

“I have had to put my own money in to keep the business afloat.

“There are people who work in the salons who do a wonderful job and have their own livelihoods to think about. The hard work of our salon managers Ellen Wildman and Allena Taylor has been immeasurable.”

Pisani admitted six counts of fraud, between December 1 2013 and October 23 2014, when she appeared Chelmsford Crown Court yesterday.

She was bailed until sentencing the week commencing April 13, pending Probation Service reports.