A TANGLE of debt from store and credit cards and a mortgage she could not afford led an estate agency cashier into crime, a court heard.

Louise Sztbyl admitted stealing £5,287 over six months from the Eden Group, Stourport, agents for the Bradford and Bingley Building Society.

She expected a prison sentence, her solicitor, Ruth Edwards, told Kidderminster magistrates.

But the court allowed her to walk free, with a four-month sentence suspended for two years. She was ordered to pay £118 costs.

Sztbyl, 30, of Baldwin Road, Stourport, had a previous conviction for theft while she was working for a Birmingham bank last year.

She had used her knowledge of computerised accounting to steal money from the accounts of 11 building society customers, prosecutor Liz Tweed told the court.

Sztbyl had been broken, physically and mentally by taking on the responsibility for a mountain of debt, said Mrs Edwards.

The debt snowballed as she used credit cards to pay the mortgage, council tax, gas and electricity.

The money stolen from the estate agency had been repaid by her father, Mrs Edwards said.

The partners in the agency, who would otherwise have stood the loss, were willing to offer her another job.