A FINANCE manager has admitted stealing more than £600,000 from an information security company, donating the bulk of the money to a “romance fraudster” from Bradford.

Ilyiea Ali, 42, was due to stand trial at Bradford Crown Court yesterday but instead pleaded guilty to a charge of theft.

She confirmed that between March 12, 2015, and April 8, 2016, she took £610,144 from Information Security Forum Ltd, described as the “world’s leading authority on cyber, information security and risk management.”

Lisa Wilson, defending, said Ali’s was “not a straight-forward fraud”, as much of the money had been paid to a man called Tahmoor Khan, and his associates.

Khan, then of Bude Road, West Bowling, Bradford, was jailed for eight-and-half years in October 2016 after the same court heard he had wrecked the lives of two vulnerable women by conning them out of a quarter of a million pounds.

After amassing £80,000 gambling debts at casinos, Khan targeted the women via a dating website and persuaded them to hand over money to him, promising to pay them back.

He posed as a successful businessman, but pleaded guilty to fraud by false representation, with the court told he lived in a “Walter Mitty world of deception.”

Miss Wilson said of Ali’s relationship with Khan: “She was defrauded”, adding that she had been left facing “emotional toil.”

The court heard that while Khan’s other victims appeared to have lent him their own money, Ali used funds belonging to her employer.

Miss Wilson said that all parties in the case agreed that at least £300,000 had been transferred to Khan, with Ali admitting that she had transferred around a further £266,000 to bank accounts of family and friends.

Tom Storey, prosecuting, said that while some transactions included small amounts for household necessities, Ali had paid for a holiday to Dubai even after police began investigating her accounts in May, 2016.

Summing up the offending, he said: “Ultimately what matters is the loss to the complainant company. It is money that has passed through her possession.”

Mr Storey said the majority of payments had come from a US-based bank account, adding: “The company may not have been aware that this money was missing because it was not brought to their attention by the finance manager.”

Recorder Jonathan Sandiford said: “Whether she (Ali) chooses to spend the money on a romance fraudster or a flight to New York, it is her choice where the money goes.

“At the end of the day, it is her choice who she has handed the money over to and why.”

All parties agreed that Ali, formerly of Botteville Road, Birmingham, but currently living in Ilford in East London, had not used the money to fund a “lavish lifestyle”, with evidence showing she was in debt at the time of her offending.

Miss Wilson asked for the case to be adjourned for a pre-sentence report on Ali, stating: “The court cannot shut its eyes to the fact that she is a victim.”

Recorder Sandiford said he was “persuaded” to grant the report, but warned the defendant, who was bailed, that she faced prison at the next hearing on July 10 having breached a “position of a high degree of trust.”

He told her: “You must prepare yourself for the possibility, if not the likelihood, of a custodial sentence.”