SHE was pictured laughing and joking with colleagues on a works “do”.

But now wages clerk Caroline Ashford faces jail – after swindling the Huddersfield company who took her on.

Ashford admitted taking almost £50,000 from a top catering company.

Ashford, formerly of Brighouse, admitted in court yesterday to abusing her position and directing almost £50,000 to her own account.

Ashford, 48, abused her trusted position as operations manager at Shaw and Lisle to alter payroll records and obtain the “wages”.

Ashford, who is now understood to live in Leeds, admitted nine fraud allegations and one charge of false accounting when she made her first appearance before a judge at Bradford Crown Court yesterday.

She was warned she faces jail – and she could also be made to pay back her stolen gains under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

Eight of the fraud charges relate to false representations that former employees of the firm were still entitled to wage payments.

Instead those wage payments were directed to bank accounts she could access.

Ashford also pleaded guilty to abusing her position between April 2009 and November 2010.

The charge of false accounting states that between the same dates Ashford falsified payroll account records to show that £49,085.71 was paid to employees in respect of wages owed.

Further details of Ashford’s offending were not revealed during yesterday’s brief hearing but Judge Peter Benson agreed to an adjournment for the preparation of a pre-sentence report.

And the judge warned her: “You’ve pleaded guilty now to a number of offences which amount to a serious breach of trust and you must expect the court to be considering custody in your case.”

Ashford’s lawyer, Mark Brookes, confirmed that she was a woman of previous good character and he requested a pre-sentence report.

Judge Benson granted Ashford bail until her sentence hearing on May 11.

He also fixed a timetable under the Proceeds of Crime Act which could result in a confiscation order being made against the defendant at a later date.

Shaw and Lisle is a food manufacturer who specialise in producing high-quality sandwiches.

Since forming in 1994 it has evolved into one of the UK’s largest producers and distributors of sandwiches, speciality breads, salads, chilled paninis and hand made pizzas.

The firm’s premises are on the Shaw Business Park in Silver Street, Aspley.

The company has a distribution network covering the Scottish Borders down to the Midlands and from the North East to North West Coasts.