A SOCIAL worker stole almost £30,000 meant for needy families and spent it on cocaine.

Lisa Finn faced prison for the 13-month fraud, but was given a suspended sentence because of what a judge called “powerful personal mitigating factors”.

Finn, who worked for Middlesbrough Council and was highly regarded by colleagues, sobbed in the dock throughout the hearing at Teesside Crown Court.

Prosecutor Victoria Lamballe told he court that she forged signatures on 60 different claims forms to pocket £28,397 between February 2017 and March last year.

The 47-year-old received the cash from her line manager and spent it on herself, said Judge Peter Armstrong.

The judge told her: “The aggravating factor in all of this is that the money was wasted, going into the hands of drug dealers.”

Finn, of Ashdown Close, Thornaby, near Stockton, admitted a charge of fraud at an earlier hearing.

She was given a 16-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, with 20 days of rehabilitation activity and a six-month curfew between 10pm and 7am.

Judge Armstrong told her: “Immediate custody would result in significant harmful impact on others, in your case it certainly would because you are a carer for your grandson while your daughter has her own health difficulties and needs your assistance.

“The pre-sentence report confirms what I have already read about you in the excellent references submitted on your behalf by colleagues.

“I have read the letters from you and your daughters, and the report from the psychiatry department of Tees Esk and Wear Valley NHS Foundation Trust.

“All in all, I think it is a case where you can pray in aid your good character and all the good work you have done for the community as a social worker.”

The court heard that Finn struggled to cope with the demands of the job as a senior social worker, and took cocaine to deal with the stress.

It has since been discovered she was suffering from bipolar disorder – which has seemingly gone a long time undiagnosed.

Kelleigh Lodge, mitigating, said Finn has paid back the money from her pension fund, and lost the  job she loved.

Miss Lodge said a prison sentence would have a bigger impact on Finn’s daughter and grandson than it would on her.

Judge Armstrong told weeping Finn: “You have worked as a social worker for many years and are so highly thought-of you became a senior social worker.

“These courts are quite aware of the stresses social workers are under. It may well be when you were made a senior social worker the stresses on you did become so great you were unable to cope.

“You had an undiagnosed mental health difficulty for some time, and in 2017 you had a mini-stroke.

“Being unable to cope with the extra stress, you unfortunately – and this is the part which is the most difficult to understand – took to taking cocaine rather than seeking help in another direction.

“That, of course, became a habit and an expensive habit and so it was you were taking sums of a few hundred pounds at a time.”