Ann Colombe, who works for an administration official supporting senior officers in the Gwent police force in Wales, secretly remortgaged the property in her husband’s name to release a total of £47,000 to pay off personal debts, a report in News North Wales said.
Colcombe and her husband, Geoffrey Jones, had originally borrowed a £75,000 mortgage through Cheltenham and Gloucester to renovate the property in Builth Wales, formerly owned by her parents, but the couple split before finishing the work.
After the relationship turned sour, Colcombe moved out, with Jones under the impression the property was being rented out. However, Jones later found the mortgage had been moved to Santander without his knowledge, Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court was told.
Prosecutor Ieuan Morris, said: “Within a few days after the mortgage payment, large cheques were paid out of her account and virtually all the money had been spent.”
Defending Colcombe, Ben Gordon described his client as being held in “high regard” by friends and family and would also lose her job following the conviction. He added that she had racked up significant debts when renovating the property.
Delivering his verdict, Judge Richard Twomlow said that without Colcombe’s guilty plea, she would be going straight to prison and that she had avoided this tougher sentence “by a hair’s breadth”. She was sentenced to a 16-month suspended prison sentence and ordered to complete 200 hours of unpaid work.
Colcombe’s estranged husband said he was “extremely disappointed” with the result.
Jones said: “This has been an extremely worrying and stressful couple of years, financial decisions have had to be put on hold and solicitor’s costs have rocketed.”
