Secretary jailed for stealing £170,000

An optician's secretary who stole more than £170,000 over five and a half years was sentenced to two years imprisonment in Nottingham Crown Court on October 25.

In court Deborah Ayto, a former employee of Woolcott Opticians, pleaded guilty to four counts of theft which included more than £80,000 in wages beyond her entitlement, more than £59,000 in cash, over £23,000 in cheques paid to herself and £5,900 in cheques to pay her own utility bills.

According to the Retford Times Newspaper she gave her children a private education and enjoyed two to three foreign holidays a year.

Ayto explained in court that her husband had lost his job in 2003, leaving them with a house they could not afford and school fees of £6,000 a term. Her barrister, Graham Huston, likened Ayto in court to the fictional character Walter Mitty.