A BOOK keeper has been jailed for three years after stealing more than £200,000 from a family farm in Colchester.
Alison Balm blew tens of thousands of pounds on a lavish lifestyle for her family, paid for by money stolen over four years from Fairfield Farm Crisps, in Wormingford.
Weekend breaks at £2,000 a time to luxury hotels and foreign holidays were commonplace while the victims, the Strathern family, now have to pay for her crime.
Balm’s husband, Alan, killed himself after he was also arrested on suspicion of fraud.
Robert Strathern, and wife Laura, set up the company in 2006 and Balm, 49, of Rectory Meadow, Bradwell, began working for them in 2010.
She admitted theft of £218,038.75 between 2010 and 2014 and was sentenced at Chelmsford Crown Court on Friday. Balm spent years transferring money out of business accounts and giving herself regular bonuses.
She got Alan a job at the company and convinced the businesses to give them both a rise, even while stealing from them.
The married mother-of-three would then treat her family to five star weekend breaks away.
Raj Joshi, prosecuting, said: “She used the money to fund a lavish lifestyle. She said she was being paid back for work done or money she had paid out herself.”
He also read out a victim statement for Mr Strathern who estimates the amount stolen at closer to £290,000.
Balm closed her eyes and shook her head while the judge read it.
Mr Strathern described her actions as “devious” and having had a “massive impact” on the business, putting all 30 jobs there at risk.
It stated: “At no stage has Alison Balm ever offered any apology for the horror she has brought us.”
The family are nowunable to go on holiday and have to work all the time to make up some of the money she has cost them, the court heard.
Russell Butcher, mitigating, pointed to the hardship for her three children and the suicide of her husband, who suffered from depression, as reasons to limit the sentence.
He claimed she did it all to keep her family together and would like to repay the money. Recorder John Caudle said: “You were not only trusted by the Stratherns in the context of your employment, but trusted as a good friend. You went out for dinner with them, paid for by the Stratherns.
“They provided you with gifts, pay increases and all the time you were stealing substantial sums from them. You fear people will view you as a greedy individual.
You are absolutely right. I do.
“They started up from nothing, they built up a business employing some 30 people and those people all had families too.
“They all relied on the business.”
He added: “It is a personal tragedy, the loss of your husband, but it is a tragedy you have brought upon yourself.”
She will serve half the time in prison and the rest on license.
A proceeds of crime hearing will attempt to recover some of the money.
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