A WOMAN stole thousands of pounds from work to pay off money she owed the courts from a previous bout of fraud.

Sarah Sebugulu used her position in an accounts department to plunder almost £15,000 before telling bosses she had gone to Uganda to care for sick relatives.

But, although a judge jailed the 42-year-old for 16 months it will make no difference as she is already serving a two-year sentence under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

The mother received the jail term in November last year after failing to hand over £50,636 of the £75,563 she made from her and her husband David’s crime.

Richard Thomas, prosecuting, told Swindon Crown Court that Sebugulu got a job with IS-Rayfast through an employment agency.

He said she was responsible for the creation and payment of invoices for the company.

Between March and July last year she made four payments on the BACS system to accounts which she controlled, totalling £14,801.38.

The fraud was discovered in August when money was going to one account in another name but registered at her address.

Mr Thomas said shortly before bosses found out what was going on Sebugulu told them she was going to see her sick mother.

She was due back in August but emailed saying she intended to stay in Africa. Neighbours at the Abbey Meads address the company had for Sebugulu said they had not seen anyone there for a while. But in October the police tracked her down to West Swindon and arrested her for stealing from her employers.

She said she had used the cash as part payment for a confiscation order made following earlier proceedings.

Sebugulu, of Kerry Close, West Swindon, admitted four counts of fraud.

Rob Ross, defending, said she was in custody after being sentenced to the two-year term for not paying a confiscation order. He said she had already served a 12-month sentence but was unable to pay back the money she was involved in taking.

The earlier matters related to a time when her husband, who is on the run from a warrant for his detention, was working at oil giants Castrol and used her bank account to siphon cash from his employers. Mr Ross said his client had been working at Rayfast for nine months before she took money.

During the previous hearing he said she had arranged for a security of thousands of pounds to secure her husband’s bail.

But the cash had not been returned and was used in the confiscation order, he said, and she was single-handedly trying to get the money to repay it.

Judge Douglas Field said: “You pleaded guilty to four offences of fraud. against your employer. In 2006 you did exactly the same thing. You have been thoroughly dishonest.”

He jailed her for 16 months concurrent to the two-year term imposed last year.