A SHERIFF has branded a serial con woman “devious” as she was jailed for four months after stealing cash from her workplace.

Charlotte Roche was found guilty in May of stealing thousands of pounds from the John Clark BMW dealership.

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In February, Roche was given a six-month suspended sentence at Maidstone Crown Cour and ordered to pay a former boyfriend £14,000 back after she convinced him to lend her money by falsely claiming she had cancer

Despite her two previous convictions elsewhere in the UK, Roche, who denied the latest charge, was said by prosecutors to be a first-time offender when she appeared at Aberdeen Sheriff Court earlier this year.

Returning to the court for sentence, Sheriff Eric Brown had to ignore her criminal past and could only impose a four-month sentence.

She was found guilty after a  trial earlier this year of stealing more than £3,000 from a motor business in the city.

The 31-year-old stole the cash during her five weeks working for John Clark BMW garage between November and December 2014.

During the trial the court heard that garage boss Raymond Henderson grew suspicious of the service assistant after she suddenly took ill with a ruptured abdominal ulcer on December 16, 2014, and was rushed to hospital – just after he was informed of missing customer payments.

A number of witnesses claimed to have handed over cash for garage services to a woman matching Roche’s description in the weeks before her hospitalisation.

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However, the accounts department later found the money and invoice slips were missing from the petty cash box – all of which should have been deposited in Roche’s name.

Sheriff Brown dismissed her evidence as “not credible”, adding that she had abused her position of trust.