Sobbing employee stole £65,000 from Corby firm

A thief who stole £65,840 from her machinery manufacturer employer has avoided a jail term.

Monika Budyn, who worked in the payroll department at Briggs Irrigation UK in Boyle Road, Corby, pilfered the huge amount of money between September 2022 and February this year.

The 32-year-old’s long-running theft was uncovered when a supervisor returned to work and caught her out.

Budyn, of Hatton Park Road, Wellingborough, was at Northampton Crown Court yesterday (Thursday, November 23) to be sentenced for one count of theft, which she had admitted at an earlier hearing.

The court heard that when she was caught, she still had £34,000 of the stolen money in her account.

Sitting as a recorder, The Honorable Lewis Wigoder, said: “It’s a breach of a high degree of trust.

"The victim impact statement makes plain that that the impact on all those who worked there knowing that it was possible that they might be unable to trust one of their colleagues.”

Budyn sobbed throughout the entire case, as she was told that the starting point for her type of offence was a year in jail.

But Recorder Wigoder said that he had considered the substantial mitigation and the defendant’s obvious remorse and gave her a jail term of two years, suspended for 24 months.

She must also complete 40 rehabilitation requirement days as part of a community order.

He did not order any compensation to be paid as the defendant now has limited means, but urged Briggs Irrigation to seek recompense through the civil courts.