A former employee at one of Bermuda’s top law firms has been handed a two-year suspended prison sentence for stealing hundreds of dollars from its lawyers.

Marilyn Darrell took cheque books from the desks of Wendell Hollis and William Cox of Cox Hallett Wilkinson, signed them, and exchanged them for cash and groceries at a supermarket.

The Canadian, who was an administrator at the firm, was arrested after being caught on CCTV and identified by Mr. Cox.

She has a history of swindling her employers — in June 1994 she was jailed for 15 months for stealing more than $50,000 from another law firm, Appleby, Spurling and Kempe.

Darrell, who is married to a Bermudian, pleaded guilty to 14 charges relating to her latest scam an an earlier appearance in Magistrates’ Court.

Senior Crown counsel Carrington Mahoney told the court on that occasion how Mr. Hollis, a partner at the law firm, became suspicious in January this year when he noticed two cheques had been cashed at MarketPlace that he did not recognise.

Mr. Hollis subsequently discovered his cheque-book was missing from his desk drawer where it had been secured, and called the Police.

In February, Mr. Cox, a consultant at the firm, got a call from MarketPlace to alert him that a female customer had tried to cash a cheque bearing his name.

When he checked at his office, he found that four cheques were missing from the back of the book in his desk drawer.

He went to the store and viewed video footage of a woman he identified as Darrell trying to cash his cheque, said the prosecutor.

The 52-year-old defendant, of Smith’s Hill Drive, St. George’s was arrested on March 1, and admitted the crimes. The charges against her specify that she forged two cheques totalling $550 on Mr. Hollis’ account and two further cheques totalling $575 on Mr. Cox’s account.

Darrell has convictions for previous similar offences — one at Magistrates’ Court in 1991 and another at Supreme Court in 1994.

According to press reports from 1994, Darrell — known at the time as Marilyn Anne Dill — was jailed for stealing over $50,000 from Appleby, Spurling and Kempe.

She was quoted as having told Police after her arrest for that offence that she spent the money obtained from falsifying documents on financing her cocaine addiction.

She pledged to repay the money

Darrell wept during sentencing for her latest theft, apologising to her former employers and telling Magistrate Khamisi Tokunbo: “I just really need some help, sir, and I’m sickened by it, I’m very sickened by it.”

She had claimed her crime was driven by financial pressures.

Although a pre-sentence report recommended probation, Senior Crown counsel Paula Tyndale said Darrell’s past history required a period in custody, which was the norm for such an offence.

The maximum sentence for the crime is five years.

Mr. Tokunbo told Darrell: “The offence you have committed is disturbing, considering your history, and you do need help”.

He ordered that the two-year sentence should be suspended for three years — meaning she will not have to serve time behind bars as long as she stays out of trouble during that period, and complies with the terms of her probation.

These include abstaining from alcohol and illegal drugs, undergoing random drug screening, and attending psychological and psychiatric counselling.

Mr. Tokunbo did not order Darrell to pay the cash back to her victims, but she announced her intention to do so.

She was fired from her job at Cox Hallett Wilkinson after her dishonesty came to light, and reacting to news of the sentence Mr. Cox said: “The outcome is not unexpected.

“It’s very upsetting when puts on one’s staff someone in a position of trust and they behave in a dishonest manner.

“It’s very distressing, and I think that the law has taken its course.”

Mr. Cox said the firm was unaware of Darrell’s previous conviction when she was hired.