Vet's relief after former worker who stole more than £20,000 is ordered to pay it all back

Melanie Beever, of Rawmarsh, stole the cash from Greenside Vets in Barnsley, where she had worked for almost 30 years, over a four-year period.

She was sentenced to 21 months in prison suspended for two years and given a nine-month curfew.

Last Tuesday, Judge Graham Reeds, sitting at Sheffield Crown Court, ordered Beever to to pay up £23,393.57 within three months or see a fresh 12-month sentence imposed.

Vet Simon Newberry welcomed the ruling, saying: “It has been a very stressful six years over which the investigation and case has run.

“When you find out that someone you have worked with for 29 years and treated as a family friend was so dishonest, it’s an unbelievable shock."

Dr Newberry said he felt justice had been done, adding: “I would like to thank the officers from South Yorkshire Police who investigated this case with due diligence and supported myself and my family throughout the case.

“I hope she will not be able to do this to anyone else in the future.”

Senior financial investigator Richard Grant, from the Barnsley Proceeds of Crime team, said: “South Yorkshire Police are committed to pursuing the confiscation of criminals’ assets under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

“It is just, and pleasing, that any monies recovered in this particular case are rightly returned to the victim as compensation.

“We hope that this affords the victim some form of closure, and that it goes some way to appeasing the suffering this theft, from a long-standing employee in a position of trust, has undoubtedly caused.”