A COUNCIL worker who stole more than £12,000 after finding a loophole in a payments system has walked free from court.

Dianne Jamieson forged signatures on the documents and siphoned the money into bank accounts held by her son and daughter.

The 50-year-old, from Catterick. Garrison, North Yorkshire, worked for Darlington Borough Council from 1992 and had a "position of trust and responsibility", Teesside Crown Court heard.

One of her duties was to make payments to vulnerable people, but when their entitlement came to an end, Jamieson continued processing them.

She was given a ten-month prison sentence suspended for a year after she admitted making a false declaration and using a false instrument, and asked for 21 other offences to be taken into account.

Rod Hunt, mitigating, said none of the vulnerable people lost out on money, and the £12,894 belonged to the local authority.

He told Judge Simon Hickey: "It is a sum that has built up over the years, and like many of these case, she didn't realise how large the sum was getting.

"She is devastated that her family do feel a joint sense of shame for what she has done.

"There was no attempt to blame anyone else in the office. She confessed when she was interviewed by her employers, went to the police station voluntarily and confessed again."

The court heard how the mother-of-four was married at the age of 19, and divorced nine years later, and struggled to bring up her children.

She got a job in a garage and then a solicitors' office, said Mr Hunt, before moving to the council.

"Incredibly, when her children are, in effect, grown up and left, this offending begins," he added. "She now has a new partner.

"He had no idea this was going on. He is a self-employed garage mechanic. He is not wealthy, but if he knew she was in need of money, he would have helped.

"He is amazed at what has happened."

Judge Hickey heard how the offending took place between 2012 and last year, and admitted: "I don't know why it started."

Mr Hunt said Jamieson, of Albernarle Drive, Catterick Garrison, was keen to get back into work.