A TV company was forced to make three of its staff redundant after a trusted employee stole nearly £20,000 of its funds, a court heard.

But Anita Gray, 39, walked free from court after she was handed a 200-hour community punishment order, to be completed within a year.

She was in charge of the accounts for York-based production company NMTV Ltd, when she helped herself to £19,669 of company cash over a period of more than two years.

York Crown Court heard how the mum-of-two from Kerver Lane, Dunnington, York, even paid for a bathroom suite from her ill-gained earnings.

She used a variety of methods to siphon off the money, including paying company cheques into her own account, overpaying her own salary, transferring money from the company bank account into her own, and withdrawing cash on the company's Visa card.

The court was told the company had been forced to make three people redundant because of financial problems, and only caught up with Gray last year when they conducted an extensive internal audit after one salary overpayment came to light.

She was then sacked and arrested, and admitted 25 counts of theft, false accounting and obtaining money by transfer by deception.

The court heard how Gray, whose husband works as a prison officer at Full Sutton jail, near York, had now fully repaid her debt to the company.

She had been £7,000 in debt when she first started helping herself to the cash.

Diane Nixon, mitigating, said stealing money became easy for Gray once the "taboo effect was broken".

"This woman feels genuine remorse," she said.

"She was genuinely shocked by the figures when she was made aware of the amount involved last year."

She said Gray accepted her actions had "a negative financial effect", but submitted that the three redundancies could not be fully attributed to her.

Judge Jim Spencer, QC, told her: "You are responsible for serious dishonesty.

"What you did, in order to bolster your own income and provide your family with the luxuries you thought they were due, you helped yourself.

"But you've paid it back, or you've been able to obtain the money to pay it back. The consequence is, you'll have to sell your home. You've pleaded guilty and I accept that you're remorseful."

Updated: 09:39 Tuesday, November 01, 2005