A "greedy" fraudster who stole £360,000 from her employer will give birth behind bars after cops caught her while she was heavily pregnant.
Expecting mum, Lynette Alptekin, 40, from Derby, splurged the stolen cash on a new car, new house and holidays abroad.
The fraudster abused her position of trust to create false invoices and fake suppliers to transfer the money into her own personal bank accounts over a four-year period.
Alptekin, who is now heavily pregnant, left family-run firm, Clay Cross firm Carlton Technologies in 2019.
It was only when their new financial controller was appointed that her theft came to light, after various bank discrepancies, including payments of £60 to £3,000 into 10 suspicious accounts, were noticed.
Alptekin admiitted one count of fraud by abuse of position as she appeared before Derby Crown Court, sitting at Chesterfield Magistrates' Court on Wednesday, April 20.
In a victim impact statement, company director Max Crampton told Derby Crown Court he had been forced to make one person redundant and take out a personal loan against his family home.
He told DerbyshireLive: "Our credit rating was destroyed, and we struggled financially.
"The impact of the fraud will impact us for years to come."
Derbyshire police’s Financial Investigation Team are still working to return as much money as possible to the victim.
The prosecutor, Aaron Dinnes, said: "There were 246 suspicious payments into 10 different bank accounts totalling £362,103.73.
"She (Alptekin) said she did not know how much money she had taken but had used it to buy a house and on trips to Turkey.
"She said she was 'not in a good head space'."
Alptekin was sentenced to three years in jail by Recorder Justin Wigoder who described her as a greedy woman.
He said: "The impact has been graphically illustrated by the victim impact statement.
"The impact on the business was very nearly terminal and the impact personally on them was huge."
Ali Naseem Bajwa QC, mitigating, said his client was due to give birth to her child in June and that she recognised the seriousness of her offending.
