A PUB boss who cooked the books in a desperate bid to keep the business afloat has walked free from court.

Paul Mash stole more than £5,000 as he struggled to make a success of running the Tap & Spile in Guisborough, east Cleveland.

Mash appeared at Teesside Crown Court today (Friday, April 26) - his 48th birthday - to be dealt with for charges of theft and false accounting.

He was given a 12-month prison sentence, suspended for a year, with 150 hours of unpaid community work and £960 compensation.

Judge Howard Crowson told him: "This is not a happy place to be spending your birthday, but you won't be spending the whole of it here."

The court heard how Marsh, of Minster Court, Belmont, Durham, had worked in the licensed trade for 15 years before bankruptcy.

In July 2011, he was approached to run the country pub by an accountant who worked for owner its George Sowerby.

Six months later, discrepancies in the accounts were uncovered and Mash admitted taking some money when quizzed by Mr Sowerby.

Prosecutor Sue Jacobs said police were called in when Mash failed to keep a promise to pay back what he had taken.

Paul Currer, mitigating, told the court that he will now never work in the pub trade again, but has got a job in a call centre.

"He is a man who feels desperately sorry for what he has done and feels desperately stupid for the way he has behaved.

"It flies in the face of the way he has run his business in the past," said Mr Currer.

"He wants to try to make amends and recover."

The court heard how Mash took money from gaming machines and falsely claimed to have put on events such as quizzes and bands.

Judge Crowson told him: "You have been working hard in a difficult trade - which has become more difficult - over the last 15 years.

"I am not satisfied you were feathering your own nest, and there are no signs of you living in the lap of luxury.

"The sad result is your employers lost out, but I don't see it going into your pocket. But it was by your dishonesty that the loss was made.

"This was not out of personal greed, but out of a sense of professional pride."