Lawyer Yvonne Painter has been jailed for pocketing £50,000 of her clients ' cash including £10,000 intended for a hospice to fund a holiday . A lawyer has been jailed for pocketing £50,000 of her clients ' cash - including £10,000 intended for a hospice - to fund a luxury ski trip to France . Yvonne Painter , 47 , was a partner at a law firm in Leominster , Herefordshire , when she used an account she was expected to safeguard to steal more than £49,060 . She used £10,000 destined for St Michael 's Hospice in Hereford to take her family on a three-week skiing holiday , Worcester Crown Court heard . Painter has been jailed for two years after pleading guilty to a charge of dishonestly making false representation to make gain for herself or to cause loss to others . The company had an office account and a client account and there were clear rules stating that solicitors should only use the company 's account . But between October 2010 and December 2012 , a total of 14 cheques ranging from between £600 and £10,060 were paid out from the client account by Painter . The money belonged to individuals for whom Caldicott Gallimore Solicitors was acting as executor of wills , the court heard today . Painter , from Stoke Prior , Worcestershire , then paid the money into either her account or one belonging to her husband , the court heard . In December 2012 , a cheque for £10,060 , intended for St Michael 's Hospice in Hereford , was put into her own bank account . It was paid in at a time when the office was officially closed for Christmas and Painter subsequently went on a skiing holiday for most of January with her family . Judge Richard Rundell said : 'We live in an age when people question authority and others in positions of authority but thankfully most people consider that solicitors are honest . 'Most people consult solicitors , being quite sure that whatever else might happen their solicitor will behave honestly and properly . 'You failed in that respect and failed quite badly . 'Over the space of over two years you took from this relatively small practice £50,000 . 'That was the most severe and gross breach of trust on the part of anyone who was then entitled to call themselves , and should have been proud to call themselves , a solicitor . 'It 's difficult to imagine a more serious breach of trust . ' Prosecutor Michael Conry said the offences came to light when the office manager , Sue Smith , became concerned about the cheques and contacted the firm 's partner , Emily Gourley . She used £10,000 destined for St Michael 's Hospice in Hereford ( pictured ) to take her family on a three-week skiing holiday to France . The Solicitors Regulation Authority was then notified and when police became involved , Painter initially said she was trying to help the business . But at a second interview she accepted she had altered paperwork to conceal her actions . The court heard that she had said she would repay her money and accepted she had used the money for her own purposes . Mark Lister , defending , said Painter became a solicitor in 2009 and had now separated from her husband . He said she was the sole carer of her 70-year-old mother , and was also receiving benefits . Mr Lister added : 'She has suffered as a result of this and she has lost her good name , been struck off as a solicitor and will find it hard to hold her head up in the Hereford area in future . ' Caldicott Gallimore Solicitors said it welcomed the two-year sentence handed to its former employee . A spokesperson for the firm said : 'Solicitors hold a unique position of trust in society . 'Yvonne Painter abused that position of trust and it is right that her crimes should be made public and that she should be punished accordingly . 'Not only did Mrs Painter abuse the trust that clients had placed in her , she abused the trust and good will of her business partner and her colleagues . 'We would like to reassure all out clients that all client funds have been restored and that no client has lost out as a result of Mrs Painter 's offending . 'We have worked tirelessly in conjunction with the police and the Solicitors Regulation . Authority in investigating these offences and ensuring that our clients have not suffered any detriment as a result of Mrs Painter 's crimes . 'Since April 2013 we have further strengthened our financial controls and have improved our governance in every area of our practice . ' The statement added that Painter 's fraud was uncovered following the firm 's own routine internal financial checks and was immediately reported to its regulator .
Lawyer Yvonne Painter , 47 , has been jailed for two years for fraud . She stole £between £600 and £10,060 of her clients ' cash including £10,000 meant for a hospice . Painter then used some of this money to fund a luxury ski trip to France . She was a partner at Caldicott Gallimore Solicitors in Herefordshire . Some 14 cheques of 50,000 were paid into her account .