Hemel Hempstead fraudster ordered to sell home to repay £2.1m

Joyce Baker has been ordered to sell her house after refusing to say where her assets are hidden after stealing £2.1m

A financial manager who stole £2.1m has been told she must sell her home to repay the company she swindled.

Joyce Baker, 63, of Briery Way, Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, admitted the fraud in September 2019 and was jailed for five years and 10 months.

A judge at St Albans Crown Court ordered her to sell her house, valued at £375,000 upon leaving prison.

Former employer David Caddick, of The Light Corporation, said her dishonesty had led to redundancies.

After the court hearing, company owner David Caddick said Baker's house "should have been sold a year ago"

The court was told Baker began stealing from the Berkhamsted company within six weeks of starting work in 2012 and continued until she left in 2018.

She used the money to fund gambling and holidays.

Confiscation proceedings began after she also pleaded guilty to contempt for not telling the court where she had hidden her assets.

The fraudster's husband William, 86, still lives in the house which his wife will have to sell within six months of leaving prison

However, her sons were told they do not have to pay back more than £200,000 in "tainted gifts" she had given them.

At an earlier confiscation hearing, Jack Boreham, 28, and Jamie Boreham, 30, both of Hemel Hempstead, said the money had gone on day-to-day spending and neither owned their own homes.

Baker told the court, via video link from prison, that she had no prospect of raising the £203,635 and had credit card debts of £50,000.

The judge told her she must sell her house within six months of being freed or face going back to jail for two years.

Baker's sons (Jack Boreham pictured) told an earlier hearing they did not know about their mother's crimes and they did not have the assets to repay the money she had given them

Some of the gambling firms Baker used have paid The Light Corporation £613,582 to help keep it afloat, the court was told.

Her actions brought the business, which makes light fittings for businesses, homes and yachts, to the brink of collapse.

After the hearing, Mr Caddick said more than 30 "good, hardworking colleagues" had been made redundant.

"Thankfully we put a stop to her and have risen from the ashes," he said.