<p>The bookkeeper for a construction materials company has admitted in court to stealing $2 million from her employer over more than 10 years.</p><p>Joan Puckett, 46, pleaded guilty Tuesday to 40 counts of fiduciary theft by taking.</p><p>In court, Puckett wept as she said she needed the money to raise two daughters, one of whom had been critically injured in a three-wheeling accident at age 5.</p><p>But prosecutors said Puckett was motivated by greed. She owned several properties, including two houses she bought for her daughters. She also bought a cabin and antiques store in the Georgia mountains, a photo shop and a vacation home and property in Florida.</p><p>Puckett also put her daughters through college and took trips to Greece, France, London, Mexico and Hawaii, witnesses and her former boss testified.</p><p>"She carefully hid her tracks," Fulton County prosecutor Brad Malkin told the judge. "She's a con artist."</p><p>Superior Court Judge Alford Dempsey Jr. told Puckett to repay her victims $1.8 million, serve five years in prison and remain on probation for 25 years.</p><p>Puckett's former boss, Randy Willingham, said her thefts nearly ruined his family's company, Willingham Stone Co., an Atlanta-based wholesaler of river rock and sand, and Sand-Rock Transit Inc., which he co-owns.</p><p>___</p><p>HASH(0x1d097e4)</p>
