pounds 13k council theft woman avoids jail; COURT: Office worker stole from the vulnerable to fund partner's drug habit.

Byline: By Ross McCarthy

A CITY council worker who stole more than pounds 13,000 from her employer including cash belonging to "vulnerable" people has escaped an immediate prison sentence.

Recorder Angus Edis told mother-of-two Deirdre Kelly: "This was a mean-spirited and calculated deception on an employer with whom you had served long enough to build up a relationship of trust and betrayed that trust."

Some of the people who lost their money were the "most vulnerable" and what she did struck at the very fabric of the relationship between the local authority and the public, he added.

But in giving her an eight-month jail sentence suspended for 18 months and ordering her to do 220 hours' unpaid work, he took into account her previous good character and the fact that her children may have to be taken into care if she was sent to prison.

Kelly, aged 36, of James Turner Street, Winson Green, had previously pleaded guilty to one charge of theft.

Scott Coughtrie, prosecuting, told Birmingham Crown Court, that Kelly had been employed by th city council for seven years and worked as an administration assistant at an office in Hall Green.

He said between December 2004 and December 2005 Kelly stole just over pounds 13,000 in cash and cheques from the safe while at the same time manipulating paperwork in a bid to cover her tracks.

Some of the money she took had been kept in envelopes and belonged to vulnerable people who had given it to their social workers to look after.

Matters came to light after an audit was carried out.

Kelly said that her partner had a crack cocaine habit and that she had helped to feed that habit as well as pay food bills and council tax.

Amir Riaz, defending, said Kelly had been put in a difficult financial position because her partner was taking money set aside for bills.