Angelika Schell, 54, of Crouch Hill, bought lunches, flights abroad, and taxis to work with her Thomas Cook company credit card.

Over two years working as a business assistant at Thomas Cook’s City of London headquarters she stole £37,000 and tried to convince a colleague to drop the charges against her, the Evening Standard reports.

The Old Bailey heard yesterday that Schell was spared prison in October 2014 for stealing £26,000 from previous employers, the Brook Henderson Group, where she was personal assistant to the chief executive.

The court heard that she hid the conviction from Thomas Cook, even using the company credit card to pay off £1,300-worth of court fines.

Recorder Bruce Houlder jailed Schell for three years and three months for the Thomas Cook fraud and an extra 18 months for breaching her suspended sentence for the previous crime, the Evening Standard reports.

Neil Baki, defending, said Schell had been diagnosed with breast cancer in the past and has recently found a lump believed to be another malignant tumour.

He said she flew back to Germany to be with her sick 80-year-old mother, but has struggled to explain why she committed the fraud.

"She doesn’t know why she did it, she can’t explain why she behaved in this odd way", he said.

Schell pleaded guilty to one count of fraud by abuse of position. A charge of witness intimidation was left to lie on file.