THE owner of an Axbridge business said he is still ‘picking up the pieces’ after his bookkeeper stole nearly £30,000.

Kelly Marie Ford, 40, of Sterling Close, in Highbridge, was handed a two-year jail sentence at Bristol Crown Court after she admitted to stealing £29,380 while employed at Auto Workshop Equipment Services.

Ford was also handed a 12-month jail sentence after she embezzled £39,800 while employed at Brunel Metrology Services Ltd in Midsomer Norton in 2015.

The two sentences will run consecutively.

Andy Taylor, owner and director at Auto Workshop Equipment Services, said the offending came to light at the end of 2016 when during a full audit the company’s accountants found a number of payments had been written off and money had been transferred into Ford’s bank account.

“We discovered that the job was not being done properly and some of the books didn’t add up,” Mr Taylor said.

“I called our accountants and got them to investigate but sadly they couldn’t find anything.

“Later in 2016 I called the accountants in to do a full audit as we had a number of customers call us and say they had no evidence of payment.

“We have a great track record as a company for payments. I terminated Kelly’s employment and took on a new bookkeeper.”

Mr Taylor said within three days his new bookkeeper found some anomalies in payments and said the company is still recovering after losing the money.

“This whole ordeal has had a massive affect on our business,” Mr Taylor said.

“We are still picking up the pieces, still finding out what damage has been done. Our accountants found that a number of cheques and payment documents were falsified and that lots of payments had been written off.”

Despite the ordeal, Mr Taylor said the company is on the road to recovery but there is still a long way to go.

“We are a strong family run company and we will come out of this,” Mr Taylor said.

“This whole ordeal has made me wary about trusting people, it makes it difficult for the people we employ as they don’t want people looking over their shoulders while they work.”

“I have got a very good team who work hard, one bad apple shouldn’t make it worse for them.

“We are coming out the other side but there is still a long way to go.”