The £500k conwoman at Claridge's

A woman who stole half a million pounds from three employers blew it on expensive cars, designer clothes - and Peter Beardsley.

Personal assistant Katie McNeill hired the former England footballer as a birthday surprise for a relative, although he thought he was attending a corporate event.

McNeill, 36, from Newcastle, also had an account at Harrods for designer clothes, stayed at Claridge's during fake business trips to London and spent £2,220 on a helicopter to fly her from her Newcastle home to a Harrogate spa.

McNeill, who was yesterday jailed for three years at Newcastle Crown Court for theft and fraud, began stealing from her bosses in 2002 when she conned a firm in Essex, where she worked as a PA, out of £12,000. She then moved to Eshott

Hall Estate in Northumberland, where she swiped another £31,000 from the hospitality business before joining Tynesidebased security firm Team Savant and conning it out of £166,000.

She used company accounts to pay the £1,500 rent on her townhouse and the leases on a Saab and Land Rover Freelander and spent £1,000 a month on a chauffeur. McNeill was found out last year when

Eshott Hall investigated her dealings.