Family guilty of string of thefts

12/07/2007

Three members of the same family were today found guilty of numerous counts of theft, false accounting, assisting in the retention of or control of the proceeds of criminal conduct and perverting the course of justice after a trial lasting several months

Charles Rathbone, 60, and his wife Angela, 53, worked for Blurton Transport Services Ltd between January 1997 and November 2005 and stole large quantities of money from their employer. Today they were found guilty of 28 and 24 counts respectively.

Olwyn Jones, 55, sister of Angela was also found guilty of assisting in the retention of or control of the proceeds of criminal conduct.

Speaking after the trial, Don Knapper, Senior Crown Prosecutor said:
"The trust placed in Mr and Mrs Rathbone by the owners of Blurton Transport was immense and this trust was treated with the theft of a large amount of money.

"The Rathbone's had a lifestyle based on the money of their employers and thankfully due to the return of one of the owners the extent of the theft was discovered.

"We worked hard with Staffordshire police to ensure we had all the evidence to enable us to successfully prosecute this case. Today's outcome took a huge amount of work both from the police and ourselves in securing this conviction."

The Rathbones and Jones will be sentenced at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court at a later date.