Slot Machine Addiction

In what turned out to be a shocking revelation for both the town and her husband, Susan Orton is a slot machine addict and no one knew. Orton, 63, spent around £500 every night on slot machines at the local bingo hall.

But it isn’t bad enough that she was a slot machine addict, she admitted to stealing to fund that addiction. Now, if you think you have heard the end of this story, it would seem that you haven’t. Orton also admitting to stealing from her husband’s employer to fund the addiction.

Orton was a conveyance assistant at the legal firm of Harold G. Walker, where her husband was a senior partner. Kim, her lawyer husband, had no idea that his wife was stealing from the firm. All told she took £79,655 to fund her slot machine addiction.

She says that she went out five times a week and first spent £100,000 of the couple’s savings over the first two years, before she turned to her employer to foot the bill. She told her husband that she was simply going to the bingo machines to blow off some steam as her job was causing her a great deal of stress.

Kim would stay home with their two children while she went out and played the slot machines – while they got deeper and deeper into debt. She ended up in huge debt over it, and started transferring their clients’ money into her own bank account.

The prosecutor said that she just kept moving money from one account to another in an attempt to hide the debt. He said that the firm noticed the transfers during an investigation started while she was on holiday. They had seen something strange in the books and wanted to see what was going on.

When Orton returned and realized she was being investigated, she transferred money from another account to repay some of what she had stolen. The couple was arrested, but Kim was cleared. He repaid all of the money stolen, but was still fired from his job.

 

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