A COMPANY secretary stole £164,000 from his employer and used the money to pay a naked prostitute to clean his house.

Instead of paying for sex, Michael Lee, aged 59, preferred to watch the woman doing his housework while she wore nothing but a pair of rubber gloves.

Lee was a trusted employee at Alec's Three Piece Suite Warehouse in Lever Street, Great Lever, for six years before he handed himself into police after he had emptied the firm's accounts and was unable get any more credit.

He fiddled accounts to hide the fact that he had stolen cash which he was supposed to have banked.

But as owner Alec Bromley confided in Lee that the business faced going to the wall, Lee was spending up to £200-an-hour on the services of a prostitute.

He admitted to police he had already spent £20,000 of his own savings and £80,000 on credit cards entertaining the woman before he started stealing takings from the firm in October 2004.

Lee, of Shorefield Mount, Egerton, yesterday pleaded guilty to the theft of £164,124 at Bolton Crown Court and will be sentenced on November 10.

Mr Bromley, aged 56, said: "Lee nearly ruined me and I was completely oblivious until the police came to see me to say that he had handed himself in.

"I trusted him implicitly as my right-hand man for six years. He was an ex-magistrate and came to me with glowing references.

"I've since been told by the police that he spent the money on prostitutes and I can't believe he jeopardised my business for that.

"I was very lucky that my family were able to bail me out to keep the business afloat."

Lee handed himself in to police in January after he was unable to get a bank overdraft for the firm.

It was only then that Mr Bromley, who has run the firm for 26 years, realised that Lee had stolen money from him.

Det Con Rick Armstrong, who investigated the case, said: "Mr Bromley almost lost his business as a result of Lee's prolonged thefts.

"Lee only came to us after he realised the game was up and was unable to get any more cash, and Mr Bromley is lucky that his family were able to bail him out."