A Westbury couple involved in a £360,000 fraud against the wife’s employers have been warned that they face jail sentences.

However, Richard and Gail Gardiner, both 47, must wait until the new year to hear their fate after pleading guilty respectively at Maidstone Crown Court in Kent to fraud and acquiring criminal property.

Sentencing was adjourned until January 2 and they were granted bail but put under a tagged curfew.

The court was told that that Gail Gardiner, of Shire Way, Westbury, took the money from a construction company where she worked as finance manager.

She pleaded guilty to fraud in which she had paid £359,056 belonging to the company, Hanson Aggregates, of Maidstone into a bank account held by her husband between April 2010 and December last year.

Richard Gardiner, now of Lilac Grove, Westbury, pleaded guilty to acquiring criminal property - £359,056 – between the same dates.

The couple, in anticipation of being jailed had turned up at court with packed bags.

However, Judge Philip Statman said that, as an “act of compassion,” he would adjourn sentencing them until after Christmas.

However, he warned them that the only issue was how long a prison sentence they would receive.

He told the Gardiners, who have teenage children: “You must put your personal affairs in order. This is a serious matter.

“It clearly passes the custody threshold by some way. I will listen to submissions on the next occasion.

"A tagged curfew will be of some assistance to you. It is divided by two and comes off a prison sentence.”