A LONG-SERVING Asda worker and her boyfriend have appeared in court accused of a gift voucher and cash fraud worth at least £500,000.

The prosecution alleges that Jennifer Margaret Ward, who works in the cash office at the supermarket’s Monks Cross branch, used the fraud to fund holidays at an award-winning castle hotel, self-catering accommodation and a time-share property on a private island.

Ward, 46, and her partner, Alistair Gordon Lobban, 49, also allegedly used 37 accounts in 11 different banks, building societies and credit card companies over a six-year period.

The couple spoke only to confirm their names, ages and their joint address in Wigginton Road, Wigginton, during the brief hearing at York Magistrates Court yesterday.

Ward faces 14 charges of money- laundering and one each of fraud and theft. Lobban faces four connected charges of money-laundering for her benefit or on her behalf.

All the charges are alleged to have been committed during a six-year period between January 2004 and February 2010.

Three years ago, Ward, who worked in the cash office at the Monks Cross store, received a certificate for long service.

According to the charges, Lobban used criminal money to buy holidays for Ward’s benefit at Star Castle Hotel in St Mary’s, the Isle of Scilly between February 2004 and September 2009.

The hotel, which is in an Elizabethan castle built in 1593, won a Cesar Award in the Good Hotel Guide as the Island Hotel of the Year of 2008/09 and charges up to £189 per person per night.

Ward also allegedly benefited from Lobban’s use of criminal money by holidays at Golf Farm House in St Mary’s between September 2007 and September 2010 according to the prosecution. The self-catering accommodation charges up to £1,900 per week.

Ward is alleged to have used criminal money to buy timeshares at Dial Rocks, Tresco, between November 2006 and October 2008.

The timeshare property is on a private island in the Isles of Scilly.

One charge claims Ward stole cash from Asda between January 1, 2004, and February 9, 2010 when she was working there.

The charge under the Fraud Act 2006 alleges she had Asda gift vouchers at her home for use in fraud on February 9 this year.

Lobban is alleged to have criminally funded an extension to a house in Middlecroft Drive, Strensall and Ward is alleged to have benefited from it.

Martin Butterworth, prosecuting, gave details of the case against the pair and argued it was so serious it had to be tried before a judge and jury. Defence solicitors Vicky Latham, for Ward, and Mark Thompson, for Lobban, did not oppose him and magistrates ordered the Crown Prosecution Service to prepare committal papers. Both were released on bail.