Accounts worker, 65, is jailed for five years for stealing nearly half a million pounds from brewery during 42-year career after her fraud was uncovered following her retirement

A 65-year-old accounts worker has been jailed for stealing nearly half a million pounds from a brewery where she had worked for 42 years.

Retired Lesley Freestone worked at the St Austell Brewery in Cornwall for 42 years and had access to payment systems.

But a court heard she made hundreds of fake transactions by duplicating invoices and processing payments into her own accounts.

Lesley Freestone, 65, was jailed for five years at Truro Crown Court after admitting fraud

Freestone admitted fraud and was jailed for five years at Truro Crown Court. 

Judge Simon Carr said the 'fraud had a degree of sophistication, creating a false paper trail to hide money in your accounts'.

She worked in the accounts department between 1974 and 2016, rising to the position of purchase ledger supervisor and she had 'unfettered access of payments systems'.

It was after she retired that the brewery conducted a review of its systems and this identified hundreds of fraudulent payments to her accounts totaling £444,329.16p between 2007 and 2016.

Freestone worked at the St Austell Brewery (above) in Cornwall for 42 years between 1974 and 2016 and stole nearly half a million pounds by duplicating invoices and processing them into her account

Freestone, of Par, Cornwall, was jailed in December but reporting restrictions have only now been lifted as charges against a co-accused were dropped.

The brewery said: 'It's a family business and despite its growth over the years it has kept a paternalistic approach. Her duplicitous approach has shocked the company from directors to the staff. '

The company said profits were affected and shareholders received lower dividends and employees a lower bonus because of her actions.