A former employee of the Bentham Development Trust has appeared at Skipton Magistrates' Court on theft and fraud charges totalling more than £100,000.

Anne Celia Yaman, 63, faces one charge of theft by employee, four charges of fraud by false representation and three of false accounting.

It is alleged that Yaman stole £101,584 from the trust between January, 31, 2008, and November 19, 2011, In addition, on July 27, 2008, in Bentham, she is said to have committed fraud by forging the signatures of Linda Barrington and David Alder on a cheque for £7,586.97 made out to TW and H Lawson.

On February 10, 2009, again at Bentham, she is further accused of forging the signatures of Mr Alder and Robert Sloan on a cheque for £527.50, made payable to herself.

And on May 21, 2009, she allegedly signed a cheque in the names of Mr Alder and Mr Sloan for £623.80, made out to herself.

A fourth cheque was allegedly falsified and made out to herself for the sum of £2,100 on May 4, 2010.

Yaman is also accused of three offences of false accounting.

She is alleged to have falsified documents to the tax authorities by declaring that staff from the trust had paid less tax and national insurance than they actually had.

The offences were said to have been committed in three consecutive years – between March 31, 2008, and April 1, 2009, between March 31, 2009 and April 1, 2010, and between March 31, 2010 and April 1, 2011.

Yaman, now of Manor Court, Seaford, Sussex, made no pleas to the charges when she appeared in court on Friday. Her case was adjourned to Bradford Crown Court for a preliminary hearing next Friday, March 7.