A TRUSTED employee who admitted to stealing from work has been ordered to pay more than £8,000 after he walked free from court.

James Parsons of Martingale Close, Newbury, was handed a suspended sentence of 10 months imprisonment at Reading Crown Court on Thursday, April 27.

The 30-year-old man worked as a team leader for DIY store Wickes between August and November last year on Canal View Road.

He was found to have completed fraudulent refunds in order to dupe the company out of thousands of pounds by running fake product codes through the store's computer system and processing cash transactions.

Parsons completed a total of 65 transactions, pocketing £9,653 in cash and was made to pay £8,500 compensation to Wickes.

The sentence was suspended for 18 months, but Parsons was ordered to undertake 200 hours of unpaid work, 30 sessions of a thinking skills programme and 10 days of rehabilitation activity.

As well as taking funds through bogus transactions, he also shoplifted from the store.

Goods worth £405.46 were found at his Newbury address during a house search.