A Limavady woman has been warned she faces the prospect of jail after she admitted swindling close to £500,000 from a car dealership.
With Norma Smith standing in the dock of Antrim Crown Court, defence counsel Barry Gibson asked for her to be rearraigned on the two charges she faced and the 48-year-old said simply guilty when the offences of theft and fraud were put to her.
On charges spanning from January 5 2012 to November 6 2019 Smith, from the Duncrun Road in the town, admitted stealing £437,824 from Edwin May Ltd and also that she abused her position of trust within the car dealership by accessing company accounts to apply company funds to the value of £14,962 “in settlement of your personal invoices and car finance repayments”.
Previously, Smith had been accused of theft and fraud amounting to £195,961 but the amounts wee amended after accounting documents from Edwin May were lodged in court.
Following her confessions on Thursday, Mr Gibson asked for sentencing to be adjourned to allow for a pre-sentence probation report to be compiled.
He also applied for Smith to be granted bail in the meantime “to allow her to put her house in order,” confirming she had not breached bail at any stage.
Ordering a pre-sentence report, Judge Alistair Devlin told Smith a probation officer would be in contact in the coming weeks and advised her “how you deal with them is entirely a matter for you but it’s very much in your own best interests to cooperate with them".
As regards her bail, the judge said given her previous history of not breaching bail condition “on balance…I’m minded to allow you to be on bail until the sentencing date”.
Adjourning the case to July 4, he warned her however she “should understand in no uncertain terms that is no indication whatsoever that you won’t be met with a custodial sentence".