Social services bosses today pledged that £40,0000 stolen from elderly and infirm people would be paid back after a council clerk was jailed for 15 months.

Martine Sapsford, 32, was told by a Bradford Crown Court recorder that she was guilty of a "blatant and persistent breach of trust" after she pleaded guilty to six specimen charges of theft between September 1995 and January 1997 and asked for a further 76 similar matters to be taken into consideration.

And as she started her prison sentence, the director of Bradford's social services, Liam Hughes, apologised to relatives of those affected and added that the council would be making efforts to recover the missing cash.

Mr Hughes said: "This involved an extremely serious breach of trust and a thorough investigation was carried out by the council. Procedures within the department have been completely overhauled."

The court heard that the council may pursue a civil claim to recover up to £75,000.

Prosecutor Jayne Chaplain said Sapsford, of Silver Birch Avenue, Wyke, exploited her position as a member of a team of people whose duties included looking after the financial affairs of elderly and infirm social services clients.

As part of what she described as a complicated system, clients could obtain one-off payments from the Council and the money would later be debited from their own accounts.

Under the system, Sapsford was responsible for obtaining such payments on behalf of clients and she had to sign a cash book to get the money.

Miss Chaplain said matters came to light after it was noted that large withdrawals had been made from the account of one particular client in social services care.

An inquiry was started in June last year and initially 50 accounts were identified as possibly being the subject of fraud.

An internal audit was carried out and eventually Sapsford was questioned about the payments.

The mother-of-one, who had no previous convictions, immediately admitted stealing money, but claimed it was only about £10,000.

She gave consent for her own financial affairs to be checked and it was discovered there was about £65,000 in various bank accounts which did not include her or her husband's salaries.

Barrister Ben Crosland, for Sapsford, said it was not easy to explain why she had committed the offences, but she fully expected to receive a custodial sentence. "She is as ashamed of what she has done as anybody could possibly be,'' he said.

"In a sense today, though it fills her with dread, it is also a relief because at least now she knows the end is in sight.''

He noted that the Council's system had been overhauled since, but he said the fact that it was not the most stringent was not an excuse for her offending.

He added: "She has lost everything. Her husband requested her to leave. She has lost him, her home and obviously her job.''

Assistant Recorder Francis Watson told Sapsford she had been guilty of a blatant and persistent breach of trust.

He said reports on her indicated she was a very troubled woman and he was satisfied that it was not a case were she had been driven by pure greed or the desire for a luxurious lifestyle.

"Why you stole this money I for one cannot begin to imagine,'' he said.

He said similar cases had resulted in three-year prison sentence: "Theft of this kind rots and destroys the confidence of those who have to put their trust in others to manage their financial affairs and you blatantly abused that trust.''

After the case, Mr Hughes said: "This case involved an extremely serious breach of trust and a thorough investigation was carried out by the Council following allegations that money was missing from clients' accounts. Following her dismissal more than a year ago, procedures in the department were completely overhauled and I want to assure clients and their families that more stringent safeguards have been put in place to ensure this type of theft cannot happen again.

"I would like to apologise to all those affected by the thefts and now that the criminal case has been completed we will be making arrangements for all the missing money to be returned to clients as soon as possible.

"The money will be covered by the Council's insurance and any decision to try to recover the money from Martine Sapsford will be taken by the insurance company."

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