A FINANCE officer at a Bradford school has been handed a 12-month suspended jail term for embezzling more than £14,000 from school funds.

Alison Gill, 42, of Barnby Avenue, Lower Grange, took a total of £14,458.44 from cash she was responsible for banking each week in her role as finance officer at Carlton Bolling College.

Gill, who pleaded guilty and had no previous convictions, took the money for herself between October 12 last year and March 7 this year.

The cash she took was paid into the Undercliffe Lane school by parents and pupils for upcoming school trips and the letting of sports facilities and use of sports equipment at the site.

Gill had "overall control" of these funds and was responsible for putting the cash into the school safe each week.

She would also take the money to the bank but this role was taken over by a security firm in September 2013.

Gill had taken the money after falling into financial difficulties, Bradford Crown Court heard today.

These included the possibility of her home being repossessed as she could not afford the payments following the breakdown of her marriage.

She was also ordered to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work in the community. Her jail term was suspended for 12 months.

Alisha Kaye, prosecuting, said Gill was confronted by the school's finance officer in May this year, where she admitted what she had done.

She said: "The defendant had overall control of the banking process.

"Some of the accounts come from parents and pupils. She would then take the money to the bank.

"The school's financial manager noticed the discrepancies and made a full check. He confronted her on May 7 this year and she admitted what had happened on that occasion and also when she was interviewed by police officers."

Sentencing Gill, Judge John Potter told her: "It's a serious matter.

"You behaved wholly irresponsibly by doing what you did in these proceedings. No excuses can be made for what you did.

"I am clear in my mind that you are extremely remorseful for what has occurred.

"You had dishonestly decided to take that money from schoolchildren themselves.

"You pleaded guilty at the first opportunity.

"You were in a job with a huge degree of trust. You did not bank all of the money. You syphoned off some of the money for yourself.

"The sums you took grew and grew and grew over the period of five months."

No-one at Carlton Bolling College was available for comment last night.