A GREEDY employee stole more than £20,000 in National Lottery scratch cards and claimed more than £16,000 in illegal winnings.

Donna Berwick stole them over the course of a year from the Shell petrol station on Maypole Road, Tiptree, where she worked.

Berwick, 47, would toss away the losing cards and cash-in any winning ones.

She admitted one count of theft at Chelmsford Crown Court on Tuesday.

Between January 1 and December 31, 2014, she stole £22,484 worth of scratch cards belonging to Chand Soni, who owned the garage.

She also admitted one count of fraud.

Between June 2014 and January 2015 she claimed £16,436 in scratch card prizes causing loss to Camelot UK Lotteries Ltd.

Berwick, of Alan Road, Witham, who has been told she could be sent to jail, claims she was not the only person involved.

Sarah Steggles, mitigating said: "She does suffer from mental health issues.

"She has been diagnosed as bi-polar.

"She is on medication but is not currently under the criminal justice support network.

"It is not something to impact on her fitness to plea but is significant for mitigation."

Ms Steggles told the court while Berwick does have previous for dishonesty offences these were while she was a juvenile in the mid 1980s and the only more recent conviction is for having a dog out of control which would not make a difference in sentencing on these charges.

She added: "I accept it is higher culpability and accept the breach of trust "She is not the only person involved in this."

She claims Berwick could not have carried out the "scam" on her own but nobody else has been charged with any offences.

The court heard the sentencing guidelines suggest a starting point of three years in prison for the offences with a range of 18 months to four years.

Sentences of two years can be suspended.

Judge Emma Peters ordered the probation service to carry out a pre-sentence report and the case was adjourned with Berwick to be sentenced on Tuesday, January 24.

Judge Peters told Berwick: "You need to be quite clear having pleaded guilty to these two offences all options are open including sending you to prison. Do you understand that?"

Berwick, speaking from the dock, said: "Yes I do."