Woman jailed for stealing £51,000 from her company

A 38-YEAR-old woman was yesterday sentenced to 18 months in jail for stealing around £51,000 in the space of three years from the Nicosia company she worked for.

Miranda Gavril was arrested in June 2002 after the owner of the company reported that she had stolen £51,383 between 1999 and 2002.

The defendant admitted to stealing the money, the court heard.

Her lawyer asked the court for leniency, citing his client’s serious medical problems as well as her family situation.

Gavril has to receive frequent medical treatment and follow a special diet, while avoiding damp, dusty spaces and cigarette smoke.

She has to undergo frequent blood tests and at the same time take care of her sick, elderly parents who live on disability pensions, the defence said.

Gavril, who assisted the authorities in the case, asked for the leniency of the court and put her act down to frivolity.

The offence carries a maximum jail term of 10 years.

In his decision, judge George Stylianides said he took into consideration the defendant’s health problems and personal and family circumstances.

“The defendant’s clean record, her admission in court and co-operation with the police authorities and her superiors towards the full investigation and resolution of the case, the health problems she and her parents are suffering from as well as her personal and family conditions, cannot be ignored by the court as mitigating factors,” the judge said.

The defendant had also accepted a court decision in a civil case regarding the money, which was also taken in consideration.

Stylianides sentenced Gavril to 18 months in jail and also presented the court’s argument against suspension of the sentence.

“The court orders a sentence to be suspended if it is justified by the total of the circumstances of the case and the personal situation of the defendant,” Stylianides said.

He went on to say that the mitigating circumstances accepted by the court did not justify a suspension of the sentence and neither did the personal situation of the defendant or the circumstances of the case.

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