A 40-YEAR-OLD woman who funded a lavish lifestyle with almost £150,000 she stole from the Blenheim Palace estate was last night beginning a prison sentence.

Anita Donaldson, who was head of finance at the Woodstock stately home, used her position to drain cash from the accounts between November 2007 and July 2009.

Having admitted one count of theft of £147,707.15, she was sentenced at Oxford Crown Court yesterday.

The court heard Donaldson, of Peat Moors, Headington, Oxford, had initially started stealing to repay £50,000 in credit card debts.

Clare Tucker, prosecuting, said Donaldson would receive invoices from contractors for work at the estate and, when she paid the companies, would put a duplicate amount in her own bank account.

“She said initially she had done this because she had debts after she separated from her partner and had been very upset. To make herself feel happier at the time the only way to deal with it was to spend money.

“She carried on simply spending the money and living a more lavish lifestyle than she could have done by her own income.”

In an impact statement read to the court, Dominic Hare, Blenheim Palace’s finance director, said Donaldson’s actions had “robbed her colleagues of a pay rise”.

His statement read: “She was directly responsible for the day-to-day running of a key part of the organisation.

“The impact of her criminality has fallen heavily on her former colleagues.

“This is a massive breach of trust on personal and organisational levels.

“It is seen as a theft from all of us who worked with her.”

Donaldson has since paid back £95,000 of the money by selling her car, her house and many belongings.

Responding to the impact statement, Peter Lownds, defending, said: “She feels great remorse and regret in relation to that and it’s completely accepted by her that her actions have caused pain and direct suffering to her working colleagues.”

Judge Patrick Eccles jailed Donaldson for 18 months and said: “There is an element of selfishness and greed in your spending. There are plainly unresolved emotional and psychological issues.”