A LAW firm boss told a judge how her business was brought almost to its knees by her trusted personal assistant, who stole almost £1.3million pounds in three years.

Most of the money taken by Sandra Ribeiro from Residential Lawyers Ltd of Cirencester, was frittered away by her partner on Bingo and online gambling, Gloucester Crown Court was told.

Claire Williams, director of Residential Lawyers Ltd, told the court the scale of the theft by Portuguese born Ribeiro, 41, had badly hit the firm's reputation, delayed her retirement plans, and increased her insurance costs by more than £50,000 a year.

She used to employ 12 people but that number has been halved as a direct result of the thefts, she said.

The court heard that Ribeiro, of St Michael's Road, Cirencester, found a way of syphoning off stamp duty due on each house sale that the company was involved in.

She made it seem that stamp duty payments - averaging £5,000 a house - were being forwarded to another conveyancing firm in the North of England to be processed and paid to HMRC, said prosecutor Nick Fridd.

But the bank details she gave for the other firm were in fact her husband Joao de Sousa's current account at Barclays and over a period of just over three years more than £300,000 a year was paid into it.

Neither her employers nor HMRC ever realised that the stamp duty was not being paid because of her ruse, Mr Fridd said.

Mr Fridd said the couple used some of the money to buy a flat in Lisbon, two 'expensive cars' and luxury holidays, but the bulk was gambled away, mainly by de Sousa.

The offences were discovered after the firm dismissed Ribeiro because it was unhappy with the standard of her work, said Mr Fridd.

"She was asked to leave and they carried out an investigation which found out what she had been doing. They contacted the firm in the North of England to which the payments had supposedly been made and they knew absolutely nothing about it."

Judge Jamie Tabor QC asked why the thefts were not discovered at an earlier stage and Mr Fridd replied: "The firm trusted her. They were busy."

Ribeiro pleaded guilty to stealing £1,277,585.99 from Residential Lawyers Ltd of Cirencester between February 2012 and August 2015.

She also admitted a charge of possessing criminal property and converting it for her own use by paying it into her partner's bank account De Sousa, aged 44, also of St Michael's Road, Cirencester, admitted acquiring criminal property knowing or suspecting it was the proceeds of crime.

Ribeiro was jailed for five years, four months and her husband for four-and-a-half years.

During the hearing Mrs Williams read a victim impact statement to the court saying that the effect of the thefts on her previously successful business had been 'almost incalculable.'

Both professionally and personally she felt a sense of 'huge betrayal' from Ribeiro's actions.

"The scale of the loss caused me to confront the prospect of losing my licence, the loss of my business and financial ruin," she said.

Claire Fear, for de Sousa, said: "He has been able to understand and express some victim empathy and he understands the consequences of his actions."

For Ribeiro, Jon Holmes said: "My client takes full responsibility for her offending and expresses full remorse. She says she felt filled with relief when she was caught. The couple have a three year old daughter and she has made arrangements with a friend and neighbour who will take responsibility for the child."