A WOMAN has been charged with a £130,000 fraud against the Airbus company at Broughton in Flintshire.

Defendant Carena Jane Griffiths – who used her maiden name of Land – made her first court appearance this morning (Tues).

Griffiths, of Eyton Grove, Eyton in Wrexham, is charged with fraud by an abuse of her position.

It is alleged that between September 5, 2012, and April 6, 2016, at Airbus UK, she committed fraud in that, while occupying a position, namely assistant and company secretary within customer support, in which she was expected to safeguard the financial interests of AIRBUS UK, she dishonestly abused that position intending to make a gain, namely £131,967.02 , for herself.

The case was sent to Mold Crown Court.

Prosecutor James Neary did not outline the facts but said it was quite clearly a crown court case.

At Flintshire Magistrates’ Court at Mold today she said she would give no indication of plea at this stage.

But her solicitor Victoria Evans told the court that it was expected that it would be guilty plea in the crown court.

The only issue was whether the calculations were correct because the defence had not yet had all the exhibits, she explained.

But she said the defendant certainly accepted that a fraud had taken place.

District Judge Gwyn Jones told Griffiths that he had to decide whether the case was suitable to be dealt with at the magistrates’ court or at the crown court.

With an alleged gain of £131,000 he was entirely satisfied that it was a matter that should be dealt with at the crown court, he said.

The judge ordered a pre-sentence report by the probation service for the crown court hearing.