A shop manager who looted £26,000 from her bosses to feed her gambling addiction tried to blame her thefts on threats from sinister loan sharks.
Sally Hall took the takings from the safe at the Spar shop in Budleigh Salterton and claimed she had been put under pressure by two mysterious men who had come to her home demanding money.
She said she stole the cash to pay off debts owed by her ex husband but when police checked with him he told them they did not exist.
Hall had an online gambling addiction and had also run up debts looking after her grown up children, two of whom were suffering physical or mental illnesses.
She had been the manager in charge of the shop until internal accounting checks showed that money was not being banked.
She made a full admission which her line manager senior recorded on her iPhone but later blamed her actions on pressure from debt collectors.
Hall, aged 56, of East View Cottage, Honiton and formerly of Pebble Reach, Budleigh Salterton, admitted theft and was jailed for 16 months, suspended for two years with two years supervision by Judge Phillip Wassall at Exeter Crown Court.
He told her:"This was a serious breach of trust and at first you lied to the company to cover it up. You gave an explanation to the police which completely lacked credibility.
"It is highly likely your motivation was an addiction to online gambling. You admit you had taken money before for this reason which you paid back, borrowed in your parlance, and was not detected.
"You later took this money and gambling seems to be the most likely cause."
The judge set a timetable under the Proceeds of Crime Act which is likely to result in Hall being forced to sell her share of a house in France to repay the stolen money.
Miss Eleanor Purkis, prosecuting, said Hall had been manager for two years and had been promoted from assistant manager. She was trusted to reconcile and bank the takings.
The company noticed an anomaly which she explained by saying the money was in the safe but when it happened a second time an investigation was started and she admitted taking cash rather than banking it.
She said she took two lots of £13,000 in two different weeks, having previously stolen and repaid £800.
She told police that she took the money to repay debts owed by her estranged husband, who she had not lived with for five years.
Hall claimed t have been visited by two debt collectors who demanded the money, which she stole because she was worried about the safety of her children.
Miss Purkis said police checked with the husband who told them he had no outstanding debts and had never had any dealings with loan sharks.
Miss Kelly Scrivener, defending, said Hall no longer stands by that account. She said she was suffering from anxiety and depression at the time.
She said she had a difficult background in which she suffered abuse in her first marriage and had split from her second husband after they moved to France and then returned to Britain.
She said Hall has heavy responsibilities in the care of two of her adult children, who would suffer more than her if she went straight to jail.
