PA in £4.4m theft trial ‘took Beverly Hills break’

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Update: In 2004, Joyti De-Laurey was found guilty of four counts of using a false instrument and 16 counts of obtaining a money transfer by deception, after stealing £4.3 million from her bosses. Read the full report of her conviction here.

A secretary accused of stealing £4.4m from her bosses at Goldman Sachs was holidaying in Beverly Hills while supposedly having a hysterectomy, a court heard yesterday.

Joyti De-Laurey had told colleagues at the investment bank that surgery was unavoidable after her cancer had returned with a "vengeance". Instead she was staying in Beverly Hills's luxury Peninsula Hotel.

And, when she e-mailed her office to say she would be in "Cornwall with my mummy and family to recoup", she was ordering expensive upgrades for a Saab Convertible allegedly bought with stolen cash, Southwark Crown Court in London was told.

Mrs De-Laurey, 35, of London Road, North Cheam, Surrey, denies 21 charges of obtaining money transfers by deception and using "false instruments" between 27 June 2000 and 26 April 2002. Her husband Anthony, a 50-year-old former chauffeur, and her mother, Dr Devi Schahhou, 67, a GP, of Hampstead, north-west London, deny associated money laundering charges.