A woman accused of stealing more than $700,000 from her former employers took the stand yesterday to start her defence.

Bambi Pimental, 54, told a Supreme Court jury of her experience working freelance for J W Gray and Company before she was properly taken on.

Mr Pimental has pleaded not guilty to three counts of theft, fraudulent false accounting, and using criminal property, while subcontracted by roofing firm J W Gray and Company between June 29, 2016 and June 2020.

She took the stand yesterday as the prosecution closed its case.

Ms Pimental said that she started her consultancy business, BP Enterprises, as a natural result of doing freelance accounting work for several businesses.

She told the court that she took on “whatever needed to be done” for small firms, offering her services at a 50 per cent discount on her first jobs to get people invested in her work.

Ms Pimental said that she took on so many jobs because she had bought a house worth $1.4 million in 2011 for herself, her boyfriend and her mother, who was ill at the time.

She told the court that Susan Gray, the wife of her future client Jonathan Gray, of J W Gray and Company, asked for her help while Ms Gray tried to organise her husband’s work.

Ms Pimental said that the two were neighbours in the same Southampton area.

She added: “I didn’t know her much. We maybe had two encounters, one being when her dog was in my yard.

“I didn’t really see them much because I was always working and was always on the run.”

Ms Pimental said that she trained Ms Gray on an “ad hoc” basis and assisted her with small changes, such as tracking inventory through a spreadsheet.

She added: “She didn’t want to do the office work. She told me she didn’t enjoy it.”

Ms Pimental said that she was eventually asked to “soft start” with the company in January 2016 and carried out book-keeping and some payroll responsibilities.

Ms Pimental added that, between April and June of that year her responsibilities became more routine as Ms Gray started to “pull back more often”.

The trial continues.

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