A gran who worked in the same job for almost 25 years has been unmasked as a thief who swiped £163,000 from her boss.
While her former employers searched for the whereabouts of the missing money, Bennett whose son-in-law is a police officer and son works in a prison, posted a series of pictures on social media, enjoying UK staycation trips, holidays in the Costa Blanca in Spain and Skiathos in Greece, as well as images of a bar she and her unsuspecting husband Lawrence erected at the rear of her home they called ''Lorenzos".
Managing director David Whitehead who runs J Shaw Electricals in Westhoughton later told of his feelings of ''betrayal'' at the hands of Bennett after he employed her for 23 years and treated her as his ''friend.'' ''But all the time she was taken these monies from us in full knowledge of the state of the business - the accounts of which she had total control. Patricia also dealt with the accounts of my brother, father, and his father too and they also feel betrayed. I still wake up at night now as I just cannot believe this has happened.''
''Some suppliers appeared to have been paid twice but upon further investigations the companies concerned said they had only been paid once. 'Mr Whitehead then made investigations with his bank as to where the payments had gone and it became apparent they were made to two accounts in the name of Patricia Bennett and one in the name of her husband who had no knowledge of the fraudulent transactions.
In mitigation defence counsel Miss Niamh McGinty said her client was in poor health and added: ''She wants to express an unreserved apology to Mr Whitehead and the other members of the company for what she did.