A CASH-STRAPPED single mum's fraud netted her nearly £7,000 in six months - and could have put her behind bars.

Prosecutor Emma Pearce told York magistrates that receptionist Kirstie Garnett, 32, faked 17 transactions at A1 Autocare in Selby, and used them to pocket cash belonging to the firm.

Garnett, of Heather Close, Selby, pleaded guilty to three offences of false accounting and one of theft and asked for 14 more false accounting charges to be taken into consideration. She had a previous caution for stealing from an employer in 2004.

District judge Martin Walker gave her 12 weeks' imprisonment, suspended for 12 months, on condition she undergo supervision by the probation service.

He told her that two or three years ago, before sentencing policy changed, she could well have been locked up for the fraud.

Judge Walker said: "Theft from an employer is a very serious offence, and when it is carried on for a long period of time, rather than a single instance, it is not a case of not being able to resist temptation for whatever reason. It shows you persisted at it," the district judge told her.

After hearing details of her finances, he ordered her to pay £2,500 compensation to the firm and warned the firm could take civil court action to reclaim the rest of the money she owed.

Miss Pearce said Garnett's duties as a receptionist included taking cash from customers. She had fradulently taken £6,766.89 between July 5 and December 20 last year and had repaid A1 Autocare £2,100 of the money.

Her solicitor, Robert Ward, said Garnett's caution occurred when she was working on commission. She believed she was owed £180 from her then employer. When he refused to give it to her, she took it.

She was a single mother with a young child and had bank debts of £1,500.

Mr Ward said there were currently moves to sort out Garnett's debt problems and that she wanted to repay all the money she had taken.

He told the court that since the offences she had found work as a receptionist in York, where she did not handle money.

Updated: 12:47 Saturday, May 20, 2006