A Thomas Cook business assistant has been sentenced to five years in prison for stealing £37,000 from the company over two years and £26,000 from a previous employer.
Angelika Schell, 54, sobbed and wiped away tears as she was taken down to the cells, according to the Evening Standard.
The court heard Schell was given a credit card while working at Thomas Cook’s City of London headquarters and spent £30,957 on shopping sprees and trips to the hairdresser, £3,363 on taxis, more than £2,000 on a colleague’s credit card, and £833 on flights to Germany.
In a previous role, she stole £26,000 from employer Brook Henderson Group, where she was PA to the chief executive.
On that occasion, she was spared a prison sentence and managed to hide the conviction from Thomas Cook when she got a job as a business assistant.
Recorder Bruce Houlder QC jailed her for three years and three months for the Thomas Cook fraud and an extra 18 months for breaching her suspended sentence for the previous scam.
Prosecutor Claire Harden-Frost told the court Schell, of Crouch Hill, London, also sent a threatening email to the colleague whose credit card she had used, demanding that he withdraw his support for the prosecution.
Schell pleaded guilty to one count of fraud by abuse of position. A charge of witness intimidation was left to lie on file.
Neil Baki, defending, said Schell had been diagnosed with breast cancer in the past and has recently found a lump believed to be another malignant tumour.
