A woman stole cheques worth £3,700 from her employer in an act of desperation, a court heard.

Former soldier Jeanette Harris cashed the cheques after being left with bills for her wedding which did not go ahead.

Colchester Court heard Harris had worked at the Consignia Colchester customer services centre for 18 months as a customer services administrator.

Her duties involved paying out customer compensation cheques such as when people had lost or damaged parcels.

She would enter details of payments and process them through a cheque printer which would be authorised by a manager.

Jarnail Singh, prosecuting for Consignia, told the court that between June 26 and August 13, eight Royal Mail cheques had been made out to Halifax and two to J Harris which totalled £4,135.

Out of that, the sum of £3,700 had been cashed by Harris.

Harris, 33, of Romford Close, Colchester, admitted to Colchester magistrates yesterda four charges of theft and asked for six other similar offences to be taken into consideration.

Paul Baker, mitigating, said: "She is 33 and had an exemplary character until these offences. It was an act of desperation on her part."

He told the court Harris had been a soldier and left in 1995 to look after her sick father and she became engaged.

"Her job was one which she did well and effectively and was trusted to undertake," he said.

The wedding had not gone ahead and her fiancee had left her with many costs for the wedding, Mr Baker told the court.

He added: "She was getting pretty bad, she owed thousands of pounds to various agencies and so had no way out of the situation financially."

In the past she had found it difficult to express her problems to her family but now they were helping out the debts, he said.

Magistrates imposed a 200-hour community punishment order, taking into consideration her early guilty plea and her previous good character. She was also ordered to pay £3,700 in compensation at £200 per month.

Published Tuesday December 18, 2001