A philanthropist’s PA made almost £100,000 defrauding her boss – but will only have to pay back £2,500.

Ljubica Firth made 229 purchases on Amazon, used entrepreneur and philanthropist Dame Stephanie Shirley’s bank card to pay for a £2,000 Virgin Atlantic holiday and transferred more than £66,000 to her PayPal account.

The 62-year-old, who was paid £35,000-a-year as Dame Stephanie’s secretary, was handed a two year suspended prison sentence in March for fraud.

And on Friday, her case returned to Oxford Crown Court where a judge ruled that Firth made £98,262.70 by stealing from Dame Stephanie.

But the court heard that she had £2,540 ‘available’ from which to pay compensation to her victim.

On the request of the victim, who was given a damehood in 2017 for services to the IT industry and philanthropy, Judge Nigel Daly ruled that the compensation should be paid to charity Autistica. The organisation was founded in 2004 by Dame Stephanie, whose son Giles is autistic, to fund autism research and campaigns.

Judge Daly said Firth would have three months to pay the sum. If she fails to pay the compensation, she must serve two months’ imprisonment in default.

The Crown Prosecution Service was represented by Robert Lindsey during the short proceeds of crime hearing on Friday morning. Nawaz Khan appeared for the defendant.

The sums were agreed between the parties.

In the spring, the court was told that Firth had struggled with spiralling debts after the breakdown of her relationship and after her pension company walked off with her nest egg. Despite the intervention of an advice organisation, her debts had doubled from £10,000 to £21,000.

She had two children and was said to be ‘full of regret and contrition’.

Her fraud was discovered in summer 2019. Dame Stephanie’s company Barclaycard had been used to buy a computer printer that was delivered to Firth’s home address.

Firth apologised to her employer, suggesting she had done it by mistake, and wrote a cheque to cover the cost of the £351 printer.

However, the discovery led to a more forensic sift through the Barclaycard expenditure by Dame Stephanie’s accountant, unearthing hundreds of unauthorised payments.

Sentencing her in March, Recorder Michael Roques said: “You blame your financial situation on your clouded judgement and the debt that you were in.

"But from what I can see the money you stole in this case was spent on holidays, clothes and sports equipment.

"None of it from what I can see was used to put food on your table.”

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This story was written by Tom Seaward. He joined the team in 2021 as Oxfordshire's court and crime reporter.  

To get in touch with him email: Tom.Seaward@newsquest.co.uk

Follow him on Twitter: @t_seaward