Bully boss gets her comeuppance as she's jailed for company theft

Known for her foul language, the mother of four sacked workers at a moment's notice and was once back at her desk 18 hours after giving birth.

But the 34-year-old was secretly helping herself to hundreds of thousands of pounds to fund a lavish lifestyle.

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She took luxury holidays, bought a £500,000 house and spent £25,000 on a wedding to her third husband.

But after husband number four tipped off bosses, she was jailed yesterday for three years for stealing more than £600,000.

The final £100,000 was taken from Lancashire-based Entre Prises when she fled to the Middle East fearing her five-year spree had been uncovered.

The company said it has had to lay off workers and freeze salaries because of its losses. Managing director Colin Boothroyd said: "She was a Jekyll and Hyde character - a very deceitful person.

"She established herself as a key person. We feel very bitter. We trusted her."

He added: "Her manmanagement skills were horrendous.

"She was a very loud person. She would go down to the shopfloor and shout and swear. She sacked people at a moment's notice, which caused a lot of problems."

Farenden, who has a child by each of her four husbands, was described as an "emotional cripple" who had a series of "disastrous" relationships with men.

The financial controller also used company funds to pay for work on her luxury house in Colne, Lancashire, claiming she was profiting from spiralling property prices.

She stole the money by pretending to pay salaries to former employees and then moving money to her bank account.

It was not until colleagues noticed that they were heading for a financial loss last year that they ordered a full audit of the accounts.

Farenden fled, lying to her boss that she had to travel to Spain because her father had died.

But she confessed to her husband, a director of the company, and later returned to face two charges of theft.

Mr Boothroyd said: "I didn't believe it at first. But when I searched her desk and went through the accounts, I found £6,000 on the company credit card for personal use.

"Within hours, I had found £60,000 had gone astray. It just snowballed from there. We managed to stand on our own two feet but it will be another couple of years before we fully recover."

In mitigation, Mark Stuart, defending, told Burnley Crown Court:

"At work, she was undoubtedly gifted. At home, she was effectively an emotional cripple."

He said Farenden had been driven to crime after a series of "disastrous" relationships with men who would not work, were in debt and demanded financial support.

"This is an extremely capable and hard-working woman," he said. "She was back in work 18 hours after giving birth.

"It was accepted she was a workaholic. She had a very bullish approach.

"There was nothing to which she would not turn her hand. She was there more hours than anybody.

"She is going to come out of prison with no money, no home and no relationship."

The court heard how Farenden's children were now living with their respective fathers.

She admitted stealing £597,250 from Entre Prises UK, which makes climbing walls, and £27,662 from its sister company Gymnova.

Farenden had used several methods to take the money.

She was said to have set up false BACS payments totalling £300,000 to her personal bank account by altering the details of former casual workers still on the firm's system.

And she paid herself another £300,000 using blank cheques given to her by the company's signatories to pay suppliers.