An office administrator who gambled away more than £20,000 she had stolen from a Bradford bakery has been spared an immediate prison sentence.

Joan Whitrick hid her previous convictions for fraud and theft when she was taken on by award-winning family firm, Just Desserts, Bradford Crown Court heard today.

Whitrick, 58, fiddled the books at the craft bakery in Station Road, Shipley, over two years to pocket £20,105, prosecutor Andrew Horton said.

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She was originally charged with stealing £50,500 from her employer, between May, 2011, and July, 2016, but her plea of guilty to the lesser amount was accepted by the crown following a thorough investigation by financial experts.

Mr Horton said that Whitrick, a grandmother of Cherry Tree Rise, Keighley, stole small amounts of cash to put into her bank account.

“It was £60 here and £190 there,” Mr Horton told the court.

He said Whitrick joined the company, that was formed in 1985, in May, 2011.

She failed to tell her employer that she was a convicted benefit cheat who was given a suspended sentence of imprisonment in 2008 for stealing £3,000 while working as a book-keeper at Richmond Upholstery in Keighley.

Mr Horton said that Whitrick’s dishonesty at Just Desserts was revealed by an audit in May 2016. Suspicion fell upon her and her previous convictions were uncovered.

After she was dismissed, she texted her bosses to say sorry and to ask them to keep the police out of the matter. She also pledged to pay back the money.

The court heard that Whitrick stole from the firm by “palming” cash sums from customers and drivers. The sums were marked as “paid” but the company did not receive the money.

Mr Horton said it was conceded that Whitrick had a serious gambling problem, losing £21,273 during her time at Just Desserts.

A report from the firm, that employs 25 people, said it had continued to trade profitably but the theft had forced it to tighten up on pay rises and bonuses.

A Proceeds of Crime Application timetable was set in a bid to claw back Whitrick’s ill-gotten gains.

Imran Khan, Whitrick’s barrister, said she was now working as a sales manager for a different company and had earned promotion in the role.

Things went badly wrong for her in 2014 when her father died and she struggled to repay a loan and to make ends meet.

Whitrick, who wore a brace on her knee for ligament damage, accepted she needed help for her gambling habit.

One of her children had serious health problems and Whitrick was needed to help care for her grandchildren at the difficult time.

Judge Colin Burn sentenced Whitrick to ten months imprisonment, suspended for two years, with 300 hours of unpaid work. She must attend a thinking skills programme and a rehabilitation activity requirement.

The judge told Whitrick: “It’s not the first time you have been before the court for offences of dishonesty.”

People who “fiddled the books” did not usually have previous convictions.

Whitrick was trusted by the firm but behaved “treacherously” by taking the money and gambling it away.

“There are a lot of people, including I dare say the people in charge of the company, who would say you richly deserve to be locked up,” Judge Burn said.

He added: “The £20,105 will have to be paid back even if it takes you the rest of your days to do it.”

Judge Burn warned Whitrick that he was reserving any breach of the sentence to himself and would jail her if she failed to comply with the requirements.