A former cashier at a Midlands law firm has been jailed for five years for stealing £1.6m from her employer to fund a luxury lifestyle.

Louise Martini, 36, from Solihull, pleaded guilty at Gloucester Crown Court to charges of money laundering and theft of £1.6m from the accounts of Solihull and Shirley firm Williamson & Soden.

Martini, who had worked at the firm for 17 years since leaving school, committed the offences over a six-year period that began in 2003, and ceased when her actions were discovered in 2009.

The court heard how she stole to fund a luxury lifestyle, buying expensive jewellery, designer clothes, cars, a share in a racehorse and funding the lease on a pub.

Giving sentence, Judge Tabor QC said Martini had ‘plundered to a quite remarkable degree’.

He said: ‘To get away with it for so long required you to lie, forge and defraud. This you did with coolness and a degree of cunning.’

Ian Williamson, senior partner at Williamson & Soden, said: ‘I welcome the sentence as the final chapter, bringing closure to a story that for us began with the partners' discovery of Ms Martini’s fraudulent activities in February 2009 and her immediate dismissal.’

‘We were of course horrified at what she did, and have worked closely with the police from the beginning,’ he said.

Williamson said no client had suffered any loss as a result of Martini’s actions, and all funds were completely restored within a short time of the theft being discovered.

He said the firm had a new accounts team that had undertaken a detailed review of the accounts function, and they were satisfied that nothing like this could happen again. Martini’s solicitor could not be reached for comment.