A former accounts manager for a Canterbury firm of chartered surveyors squandered more than £7,000 of the company’s money at bingo.

Deborah Couzens, 45, was said be suffering considerable personal difficulties at the time and turned to the game as a refuge.

Couzens, of Pine Tree Avenue, Canterbury, appeared for sentence at Canterbury Crown Court having admitted stealing £7,529 from Caxtons between November, 2006, and April, 2007.

She was sentenced to 12 months in prison, suspended for two years, with 150 hours unpaid work. She will be under supervision for six months.

Oliver Saxby, prosecuting, said Couzens had started working for Caxtons helping the accounts manager but by 2006 was reponsible for the accounts and recording all payments on the computer.

She began siphoning off money and paying it into her own account and when arrested made full admissions.

She said at the time she was suffering domestic difficulties and spent more and more time at bingo, sometimes gambling £100 a night.

Caroline Knight, for Couzens, said she had shown genuine remorse and left her job before the theft was discovered to remove herself from temptation.

Miss Knight said it was unsophisticated offending by someone who was really little more than a data input clerk.

She had considerable domestic problems and the bingo hall became her refuge.

“The only way to enable her financially to go was by taking money from Caxtons,” said Miss Knight.

She said Couzens was riven with remorse and had been very close to breaking point.