A woman who stole £2.3 million wept in the dock as the judge told her the “prison door was open”.

Julie Nickerson, 54, did not even know how much money she had taken, her barrister Oliver Jarvis told Bradford Crown Court.

Nickerson, who runs a newsagents on Wade House Road, Shelf, with her husband Anthony Nickerson, 47, pleaded guilty to theft of £2.3 million from her former employer, JLA Ltd. She also admitted laundering money, between 2005, and December 31 last year, and fraud by making a false representation to HM Customs that she had inherited £649,000 from her mother, between July 1, 2009, and September 1, 2011.

Anthony Nickerson, who was not charged with theft, denied money laundering and fraud.

He will stand trial at the Crown Court on April 7. Barrister for the Crown, Peter Hampton, said the case would last five days.

Julie Nickerson will be sentenced after her husband’s trial.

The couple’s bail was extended and reports were requested.

The Recorder of Bradford, Judge Roger Thomas QC, told Julie Nickerson: “The sort of value of this case opens the prison door, I’m afraid.”