A PARISH council clerk carried out a £16,000 fraud by ordering excessive quantities of office supplies and selling them online.

Sara Turner, 51, was trying to pay off £30,000 of debts following the ending of her marriage.

She repeatedly over-ordered office supplies, mostly printer cartridges, and sold them using her online Amazon account.

Turner, of Summerfields, Sible Hedingham, admitted one count of fraud, covering a two-year period, when she appeared at court and was given a suspended jail sentence and must carry out 200 hours of unpaid work.

Judge David Goodin said: “It was a sitting duck for your relentless dishonesty because so much trust was reposed in you.

“You were effectively the holder of the purse strings and you could do pretty much as you like and did. That is serious.”

Charles Myatt, prosecuting, said Turner carried out the fraud between March 2009 and September 2011, She was employed by Glemsford Parish Council in Suffolk since 1998 and had been paid a £20,000 a year salary and £500 a month in expenses for using part of her home as an office.

When councillors investigated financial irregularities, they found unauthorised purchases had been made and financial record keeping had been poor.

Ipswich Crown Court heard Turner, who has no previous convictions, had found herself in a difficult financial position after her second husband left her with substantial debts.

Nicola Devas, mitigating, said Turner has obtained a job, and paid off a large part of what she owed and is anxious to pay back Glemsford Parish Council, too.