A FATHER-OF-TWO took thousands of pounds from his employer to fund his gambling addiction, a court heard.

Craig Ley, of Bailey Street in Ulverston, was employed by CP Catering in Kendal to create a website for the business where online payments could be made and used his trusted position with company finances for his own gain, Preston Crown Court was told.

After being given the company laptop to work from home due to the pandemic, the 40-year-old took out £5,308.14 from the company account over 14 separate withdrawals between November 2020 and March 2021, the court heard.

"One of the workers looking at the finances noticed there was a shortfall in income," said prosecutor James Preece.

"The defendant said the funds were stuck in a PayPal account and they were safe.

"In fact they were not safe and were in the defendant's own bank account.

"Peter Wightman (who runs CP Catering) said he had to take out a £10,000 business loan to cover the losses and had many sleepless nights because of this."

The prosecutor said Ley had a relevant previous conviction in 2005 where he had stolen money from a previous employer - which the defence highlighted was again to fund the defendant's gambling addiction.

"This was not a sophisticated offence, and the victim was not particularly targeted," said Nicola Carroll, mitigating.

"The defendant says he did not have unsupervised access to the bank account.

"He committed the offence because he is a gambling addict.

"He has been attending Gamblers Anonymous in Barrow.

"There is a letter from David Ward from Gamblers Anonymous which highlights the steps he has made.

"Addiction is an illness."

Ms Carroll said Ley was "on the road to recovery" and was seeing his GP regarding his mental health, and gaining employment to help tackle his gambling debts.

She said his partner had challenging hours in her job so he is the main caregiver to their nine-year-old child.

Mr Recorder Close, who was presiding over the matter, agreed with Ms Carroll’s belief that he would be suitable for rehabilitation and suspended a 10-month prison sentence for 18 months.

Alongside that Ley must attend 20 days of rehabilitation requirements and complete 150 hours of unpaid work.

He was also ordered to repay the money he took at £125 a month which would take more than 42 months to reach the amount stolen.

"If you do not work with probation and do your rehabilitation work alongside the work you are already doing you will be in breach of this order and be brought back to court," the judge said.

"If you stay out of trouble you will not go to prison."