An employee at one of Bermuda’s top law firms stole hundreds of dollars from lawyers after swiping cheque-books from their desks. Marilyn Darrell signed the cheques belonging to Wendell Hollis and William Cox of Cox Hallett Wilkinson 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.

It is not the first time she has swindled a law firm employing her. In June 1994 she was jailed for 15 months for stealing more than $50,000 from Appleby, Spurling and Kempe.

The 52-year-old wept in Magistrates’ Court yesterday as she pleaded guilty to 14 charges relating to her latest scam.

“I was under a lot of financial pressure. I had poor judgment,” she told Magistrate Khamisi Tokunbo. Senior Crown counsel Carrington Mahoney had told the court how Mr. Hollis, a partner at the law firm, became suspicious in January this year when he noticed two transactions on his bank statement that he did not recognise.

These related to a $250 cheque cashed at the MarketPlace store in December last year and a $300 cheque cashed in January this year. These were signed by an unknown person, said Mr. Mahoney.

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 defendant, a married woman from Smith’s Hill Drive, St. George’s was arrested on March 1. She admitted stealing the cheque-book from Mr. Hollis and four cheques from Mr. Cox. She further admitted using two cheques belonging to each defendant, telling Police she gained groceries and money on three occasions and attempted to so on a fourth.

The charges she pleaded guilty to yesterday specified that she forged two cheques totalling $550 on Mr. Hollis’ account and two further cheques totalling $575 on Mr. Cox’s account.

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

According to press reports from June, 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 in December, 1993 that she spent the money obtained from falsifying documents on financing her cocaine addiction. She pledged to repay the money. At yesterday’s court hearing, an emotional Darrell told Mr. Tokunbo she wished to apologise to Mr. Cox and Mr. Hollis for abusing their trust in her — especially the latter, whom she said was instrumental in getting her the job.

“I’m just ashamed, and words can’t describe how I feel. This has devastated me and my family,” she said.

Darrell claimed she had been experiencing financial problems, and needs help to deal with her inability to handle this type of stress. She said she intends to pay back the stolen funds.

Mr. Tokunbo said: “You say it’s poor judgment (but) it’s not the first time you have done this ... you do have a problem of some sort. Something’s going on here and I want to know more about it and about you.”

He ordered a pre-sentencing report, and bailed Darrell in the amount of $5,000 to return to court for sentencing next month. In the meantime, he ordered her to surrender her travel documents and pay a $100 fine she owed for a traffic offence in 2004.

The Royal Gazette understands that Darrell — who hid under a coat as she left court — was fired from her job at Cox Hallett Wilkinson after her dishonesty came to light. Mr. Cox and Mr. Hollis declined to comment yesterday.

Law firm employee stole hundreds of dollars