Sisters-in-law stole more than £1m

Two sisters-in-law have admitted plundering more than £1 million from the Black Country vending machine company they worked for.

Walsall firm Coinadrink almost went bust as finance manager of 20 years Carol Langham funded her lavish lifestyle through the sums she swindled along with cash officer Denise Langham.

The pair pocketed £639,000, while a series of loans in the company's name to fill the black hole pushed the total missing to around £1.1 million. Carol, in charge of the company cheque book, wrote out huge sums for her own account. Other amounts were taken in coins by Denise, who would book out fake floats.

Carol supplemented her £32,500 salary to splash out on a four-bedroom detached house jewellery, expensive hair-dos and foreign holidays.

The fraud came to light when the owner of the firm noticed a discrepancy in tax accounts. The sisters-in-law yesterday admitted a joint charge of theft by an employee relating to £73,000 between 2005 and June 2007.

At Wolverhampton Crown Court, Carol, 44-year-old, of Dunster, Dosthill, Tamworth, pleaded guilty to a further 24 offences involving falsely obtaining a money transfer by deception, fraud by abusing a position of trust and one of false accounting. Denise Langham, aged 53, of Beacon Road, New Invention, Willenhall, pleaded guilty to the one theft offence. Sentencing as adjourned until February.

Coinadrink, based on the Maple Leaf Industrial estate, specialises in food and beverage services.