A COUPLE who stole a total of £15,700 from an 83-year-old man and a woman and used the money to pay drug and gambling debts have been jailed.

Charlotte Carruthers, 26, used her then position as a domestic cleaner to take cheques from her clients. The cheques were then used to divert money into her 25-year-old partner Joseph John Matthew Phillips’s bank account, said Rob Galley, prosecuting.

Carruthers’ boss was arrested and questioned on suspicion of carrying out the frauds after Carruthers left the firm “suddenly” and fled to Torbay, where Phillips was. Lawyers for the couple said they were now running a conservatory business in Sheffield.

For Carruthers, Mark Foley said she had never met the two victims and had been concerned by threats of violence if drug debts, run up by her partner, were not paid. She was remorseful and had not intended her boss to be arrested.

Carruthers and Phillips, who gave an address in Regent Street, York, both admitted two charges of fraud and each was jailed for 14 months at York Crown Court.

Mr Galley said Carruthers had cleaned the 83-year-old man’s home when working for a cleaning firm.

She stole three cheques from the back of his chequebook and four from the back of a chequebook belonging to the owner of a different house she cleaned.

The pensioner’s cheques were used to steal £9,400 from his account. The victim only discovered the cheque thefts in March when he and his wife realised money had been taken from their joint account. One of the cheques stolen from the second victim was stopped but the other three were cashed for a total of £6,300 between January and February 22.

James McGowan, for Phillips, said his client had a history of drug use and a gambling problem.