LONDON - A WOMAN has pleaded guilty to a series of deceptions on some of London's leading auction houses and luxury retailers, amassing £2 million (S$5 million) over a seven-year period, Scotland Yard said on Wednesday.

Shahra Marsh, a 52-year-old British national of Iranian and French origin, was initially arrested for stealing from Christie's auction house in October 2006 after writing cheques for expensive antiques which subsequently bounced.

During the course of their investigation, police discovered jewellery worth £770,000 stashed in a safe deposit box as well as over £1 million worth of stolen art, antiques and jewellery in a storage facility in east London.

The most expensive single item found by the police was a diamond ring worth £69,000.

'This woman amassed a vast quantity of stolen property through complex and protracted criminal methods,' said detective constable Marek Coghill.

Marsh, who used the same cheque bouncing technique to buy expensive items in Geneva and Paris as well, pleaded guilty at Southwark Crown court to 38 counts of fraud, deception and concealment. -- REUTERS