A BUS company worker stole thousands of pounds from his employer to fund his gambling habit and pay for dates with two girlfriends, a court heard.

Steven Barbour, of The Waterfront, Selby, took £7,560 from cash deposit machines he was responsible for monitoring between April and August last year.

The 40-year-old pleaded guilty to theft and was jailed for 12 months after he was seen on CCTV pocketing cash from the two First York machines, which drivers use to drop off their takings.

Jade Edwards, prosecuting, told York Crown Court Barbour was a controller who was trusted to access and maintain the machines.

She said the machines are independently verified by Security Plus and auditors, and Barbour was caught when a discrepancy was found between the amount of cash deposited and the amount collected by Security Plus.

Bosses looked at CCTV and in one clip, which was shown to the court, Barbour could be seen walking into the office on his day off, picking up keys to the machines and going round to the back of them to remove them and fill his pockets with money.

When he was finished taking funds, he printed off two receipts to show how much money was in the boxes and put it in the bin.

Barbour, who was representing himself in court, pleaded guilty to the offence at an earlier hearing, but disputed how much he had stolen.

He told the court he had only taken between £30 and £40 on “three or four occasions” until the last incident, when he stole £400 to help his girlfriend pay off debt.

He said: “I don’t know why I did it. I had worked there for 15 years and had never done anything like that.

“It was a crazy moment in my life and I have lost everything.”

The Honourary Recorder of York, Judge Paul Batty, QC, said the offending was too serious to not jail Barbour.

He said: “This, I regret, was calculated and persistent dishonest conduct regarding a very high breach of trust.”