A 'DISHONEST' woman who stole £65,000 from the company she worked for has been jailed for more than a year.

Grandmother Janet Eggleton, 53, was sentenced to 18 months in prison for defrauding the Bracknell Waitrose for over a two-and-a-half-year period, which carried on until 2014.

Eggleton, of Chalfont St Peter, Buckinghamshire, was jailed on Thursday, December 20 after pleading guilty to fraud following an investigation.

The court heard how Eggleton had been on various holidays, allegedly with the money she had illegally obtained while an employee at Waitrose.

She had worked in the Bracknell cash office department of the supermarket chain, where Judge Emma Nott described how she had 'abused her position' to regularly steal the money.

She described how, in 2014, Eggleton had taken a six-month sabbatical, where she holidayed to locations including New Zealand, China, San Francisco and Las Vegas, and how she had continued to deny that the trips were funded by money belonging to Waitrose.

While sentencing her at Reading Crown Court, Judge Nott said: “You took this money, defrauding your employers.

“You had devised your own spreadsheet that you put to use to cover your actions.

“Your embarrassment and shame comes more from being caught than from what you have actually done. You describe the amount you took as a mere ‘drop in the ocean’, which would have no effect on Waitrose.

“You continue today to seem to minimize the scale of your theft.”

Judge Nott added that the apparent lack of remorse shown by Eggleton would be affecting the length of her sentence.

She also said that the fraudulent activity by Eggleton was not just once or twice, but was part of a ‘sustained and regular’ activity.

The defence had spoken of how Eggleton is a family person of good character, with three young grandchildren.

On summarising the sentence, Judge Nott said that she had taken into consideration Eggleton’s situation, as well as her mental and physical health, which had led to her decision to sentence her to 18 months in prison.