A SHOP assistant who stole £20,000 from work has avoided jail because he put the stolen money in a building society account and did not spend it.

By the time police uncovered the money, it was worth more, thanks to interest on the account.

For seven years, Simon Watkinson pocketed money and gift vouchers from the tills at W H Smith in Bishop Auckland, County Durham.

The 34-year-old also stole DVDs and videos from the shop and sold them on Internet auction site eBay to collect a further £1,000.

A court heard yesterday that the money did not fund a criminal lifestyle -he simply put it in the building society account and left it alone.

He appeared at Teesside Crown Court to be sentenced for theft and money-laundering after he pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing.

He was given a 12-month prison sentence suspended for two years, ordered to pay back the £20,000 and was fined £6,000 and ordered to pay £7,775 costs.

Watkinson was told by Judge Peter Armstrong he was spared jail because of his previous impeccable character and the fact that he had not spent the money.

Defence barrister Christopher Dorman-O'Gowan said: "This is not a man who was living the high life, the life of a criminal.

"It is a rather strange case and here we have a man who has lived a quasi-monastic lifestyle. Effectively, he lived on his own, did not do anything except watch videos and DVDs and go and stay with his parents occasionally.

"It is really a person who lived a very quiet life -wine, women and song did not come into his life at all. There was an occasional trip to America on a cheap flight. As a result, he was a man who had rather a lot of money."

Watkinson, of Brancepeth Grove, Bishop Auckland, was filmed taking money and vouchers from the tills and also admitted stealing films to sell on eBay.

Shaun Dodds, prosecuting, said Watkinson also bought cheap videos from other shops, put them through the till at his store as customer returns and pocketed the cash.

He admitted theft of money and goods between July 1998 and March last year, and a charge of money-laundering, by concealing, disguising, converting and transferring criminal property to a value of £1,000 by selling stolen goods on eBay.