US shopaholic avoids prison

Ms Roach was too busy shopping to get a flight home

By Steven Evans in New York

An American woman who stole about $250,000 from her employer has avoided being sent to jail because of her shopping addiction.

Elizabeth Roach felt compelled to shop. Splashing out on a $7,000 belt buckle and 70 pairs of shoes set her back about $28,000 on a trip to London - with her compulsion so strong that she missed the plane home.

To finance the spending she stole from Andersen Consulting, as her former employer was then called, taking the money over three years by claiming bogus expenses.

But her lawyer argued she should not go to jail because spending was an addiction - for her, shopping was self-medication for depression.

The judge agreed and fined Ms Roach, from Chicago, $3,000.

It is thought to be the first such case of its kind. Drug and alcohol addictions are not considered mitigation of theft.

The thief left her high-powered job as a management consultant.

She has now got another one with a computer firm at higher pay - a salary now of $250,000 a year.