Marketing boss Caroline Shopland-Saich must sell Ilfracombe house to pay back debts

A marketing executive who used her company credit card to pay online gambling debts must sell her home to repay the money.

Caroline Shopland-Saich, aged 41, has been ordered to repay the £22,620 she stole from a Barnstaple company within six months, or face 15 months in jail.

Exeter Crown Court heard she will have to sell her home in Foxbeare Road, Ilfracombe. Shopland-Saich, was given a suspended sentence in January after she admitted using a company credit card to pay off her huge debts to the Foxy Bingo website.

She was a "highly respected" member of the local community, helping the Round Table and the fire service to organise charity events, before the case came to light.

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Shopland-Saich was head of marketing at the Barnstaple-based Applegate Media and was supposed to use the card to buy vouchers as rewards for successful sales reps.

Married Shopland-Saich admitted fraud and was jailed for 12 months, suspended for two years. She was also ordered to do 200 hours unpaid community work and was curfewed for four months by Judge John Neligan, in January.

She returned to the same court where Mr David Bowen, prosecuting, applied for a compensation and confiscation order.

Miss Bathsheba Cassel, defending, said: "She will need six months to pay because her property needs to be disposed of."

Judge Erik Salomonsen told her: "The money is coming from the sale of a house. If this is not possible you should make an application for further time. If you do so the prosecution will want to know what steps are being taken to realise assets."