In a tragically sad case a young mother from the North of England has faced magistrates after stealing more than £1,200 from the bookmakers shop where she worked.

Angela Ann Gleeson cheated the Coral bookmakers in Oxford Road, Hartlepool, out of the money by changing losing betting slips into winners to pay an outstanding debt.

For 19 bets on horse racing and sports events, Ms Gleeson was secretly changing the results in order to pay back £900 she owed.

It’s alleged that the thefts took place over a six-week period after the 22-year-old had only been working at the bookies for a short time.

Prosecutor Samantha Morgan-Baylis said: "Routine checks showed that on 19 separate occasions between October 13th to November 22nd there were discrepancies in the betting payments - all of which had been put in by the defendant.

"The bets had either been over-paid or losing bets had been paid out as winning bets."

Ms Morgan-Baylis added: "She told police she had been working for the bookmakers for two months when a male she owed money to said he wanted the money back and told her to 'start stealing'."

Ms Gleeson, who has an 11-month-old baby, was arrested just after Christmas on December 29th and this week pleaded guilty before town magistrates to theft saying she had been frightened by threats made by a money lender.

During mitigation, David Smith told the court how Gleeson's debts of £300 had quickly trebled to £900 and she was worried for her baby's safety after her property was damaged.

"It's not a particularly sophisticated offence," he said.

"If she had thought about it - by inputting her own identification through the system each time, they would automatically be traced back to her, which they were.

"But it wasn't a time she was thinking rationally. She's very ashamed of what she's done and she wants to make good her wrongdoing."

Magistrates accepted jurisdiction and the case was adjourned until Tuesday, January 29, for a pre-sentence report to be carried out.

The case once again highlights the dangers involved in taking loans from unlicenced money lenders.

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