AN accounts manager from Bala has admitted that she made out company cheques to herself over a five-year period.

Mother-of-four Donna Harding was charged with fraud between January 2011 and June 2016 while in a position of trust as accounts manager with MCS Test Equipment Ltd at St Asaph.

The prosecution alleged at Mold Crown Court that she made out 212 fraudulent cheques which she cashed or deposited into her personal account to the tune of £100,000.

Harding, of Cae Bach in Bala, pleaded guilty but on the basis that the amount she had taken was £57,858.

The court was told that the prosecution was willing to accept a figure of £70,000.

Defending barrister Elen Owen suggested that it would not make a material difference in sentence whether it was £57,000 or £70,000 because both were within the same sentencing bracket.

Judge Rhys Rowlands gave the prosecution time to consider the issue. He bailed Harding pending sentence at the end of the month but warned her that custody would be uppermost in the court’s mind.

Money had been taken while she was in a position of trust, he said.

He ordered a full pre-sentence report in view of the fact that the defendant was a mother of four.

But he warned that it was a “desperately serious matter” and he did not want her to read anything into the fact that he was bailing her and ordering a pre-sentence report.