A TRUSTED bank worker stole more than £13,000 from his employer after getting into financial difficulties through drink and pay day loans, a court heard.

Thomas Dransfield, 29, avoided immediate custody after the court was told he had confessed what he had done to the bank and repaid all the money by signing over his pension.

Sentencing him to 16 months imprisonment suspended for two years, Judge David Hatton QC, said it was a sophisticated and protracted course of theft.

But the judge said: "It is to your credit that you confessed your offending at a time when it was not even known to those who employed you."

Judge Hatton added: "It is a very sad case because you had a bright future, which has been lost."

Prosecutor Peter Byrne told Bradford Crown Court today that Dransfield had worked at Barclays Bank, based at the Carlisle Street, Manningham branch, for eight years, on the counter and tills and had access to the bank's computer system.

Mr Byrne said the defendant was off work ill on October 15 last year, when £10,000 was found to be missing from the bank's ATM machine, and the defendant's till was found to be £3,662 short.

The next day he told a colleague he had stolen money. He was suspended and interviewed by the bank and police.

Dransfield admitted taking money from the till at his branch, and the Skipton branch where he had also worked, for two and a half years.

Mr Byrne said the defendant knew when checks would be made and was able to cover up the thefts by transferring money between accounts.

The prosecutor said the defendant, who was of previous good character, had started drinking heavily and had then taken out pay day loans with extremely high interest rates and got into difficulty making the repayments.

He said Dransfield had signed over his pension to the bank, which had compensated it for the money he had taken.

Dransfield, of Compeigne Avenue, Riddlesden, had pleaded guilty at the preliminary hearing to one charge of theft from employer.

His barrister, Andrew Stranex, said the bank had stated that if the defendant had not admitted from the start all that he had done, it may not have found out what had been taken.

Mr Stranex said: "He has worked hard to rebuild his life. He bitterly regrets what he did. All that he has done, since these offences came to light, has been to work to address what caused him to get into these difficulties and put right what he did."

Dransfield had addressed his drinking in a positive way.

Judge Hatton told Dransfield he had been in a trusted and responsible position, but his offending had been out of character. He ordered him to carry out 200 hours of unpaid community work.