Christine Rose's four and a half year jail sentence has drawn a line under a 20 month nightmare for Offenham First School head teacher Jean Wardle.

Mrs Wardle was in court with her staff and school governors to see Judge Michael Mott sentence the former school secretary. The 52-year-old-fraudster was jailed for fiddling the school and four parish councils out of more than £220,000.

It was the summer of 1999 when Mrs Wardle's worries began. Her secretary's work started to falter, but she made allowances for Rose who said her marriage was on the rocks, she had cancer and that her 19-year-old daughter had tried to commit suicide.

Mrs Wardle took letters home to re-type and provided a shoulder for Rose to cry on, until by chance a new printer broke down. Discovering three had been ordered and only two were at the school led to the unravelling of one of the most complicated fraud cases the Judge at Worcester Crown Court had ever come across.

Rose had taken the school, as well as Honeybourne, Offenham, South Littleton and Wickhamford parish councils, to the cleaners.

She ordered equipment organisations never received, forged hundreds of signatures on loan applications, fiddled her own salary and betrayed and deceived everyone around her for eight years.

Rose denied any wrong doing at first, which cast suspicion on Mrs Wardle causing her untold agony.

After Rose was suspended Mrs Wardle sacrificed her school holidays to put right the mess in the office after computer records including children's details were wiped.

She struggled with a much depleted school budget and few staff - with an Ofsted inspection looming. Mrs Wardle's health began to suffer and finally she collapsed at school in October, which put her off work until the following January.

Mrs Wardle said after Rose's sentence: "I was totally exhausted. This was a tremendous shock to me and my staff, but we worked closely with governors to ensure that the children did not suffer. The proof of our success was in an excellent Ofsted report the next year."

The school has managed to claim back most of the money stolen through an insurance policy and parish councils have reached a settlement with Lloyd's bank, but even so the feeling of betrayal, resentment and disgust is sure to rankle with many villagers for years to come.

They never imagined the smartly dressed, slightly aloof secretary from Long Hyde Road could steal so much as a pencil.

Local shop assistant Jenny Hodges said: "Villagers are up in arms over her. She should be made to pay back every penny.

"I've known her for 30 years and she's quite stuck up - she really took us all in."

Tony Bomford was so upset at being totally duped that he resigned as South Littleton Parish Council chairman. He had known Rose's family for 50 years.

"I trusted her implicitly. She was a good friend - I spent a lot of time in her kitchen discussing council business. I was even involved with the care of her expensive horses," said Mr Bomford.

Peter Bastow, from Wickhamford Parish Council, said: "We feel really betrayed by someone we trusted and also feel let down by the audit people who never revealed any discrepancies."

He said the four parish councils needed to get together now to find out what lessons can be learned.

Sir Timothy Harford, a former merchant banker from South Littleton who helped the parish councils claim back their losses, said: "It is sad that a woman of such talents should use them in such a misguided way."

His wife Lady Carolyn Harford also expressed some sympathy for Rose. She sent in a reference to court on behalf of her defence, as did the local vicar and six others, including her daughter who pleaded for a light sentence.