A WOMAN has been jailed for four years for stealing almost £900,000 from her Chagford employers.

Deborah Wolstencroft stole the money over an eight-year period from Marquesa Search Systems Ltd to book cruises to far flung destinations around the world.

She admitted six theft charges at Exeter Crown Court this week totalling £877,000.

Prosecutor Sean Brunton said the 51-year-old was employed as a bookkeeper for the small privately-owned company which searches for trademarks and copyrights.

The theft was simple — she transferred money into her own bank accounts from the company which had a turnover of around £500,000 a year, he said.

The company's owners told police they trusted Mrs Wolstencroft, whose last address was in Wolrige Avenue in Plympton.

The court heard the company's owners, who were near retirement age, had had to remortgage their home in the wake of the thefts.

Mrs Wolstencroft told police she stole the money to try to keep her late husband alive after she discovered he was an alcoholic and that his condition had become terminal. But she used the money to book cruises on the QE2, flights on Concorde and her husband bought her expensive jewellery using an American Express card.

She also admitted an attempt to steal a further £4,216 from the company which was spotted by the company's bank and her crimes were exposed.

Exeter Crown Court heard civil proceedings were underway to recover £350,000 in assets.

Defence barrister Andrew Maitland said Mrs Wolstencroft wanted to repeat 'her deepest and sincerest apologies for her actions over this period'.

He said there had been a 'total absence' in her trying to hide these thefts. But he accepted that the money was taken to 'essentially fund her life style' .

Judge John Neligan jailed her for four years for the thefts and two years for attemped theft — the sentences to run concurrently.

He told her: 'You were in a trusted position as book keeper and accounts manager and you abused that trust in a very serious way over a period of six to seven years.

'It was in my view a planned system to steal.

'It was a substantial and serious breach of trust.'