A CROOKED payroll supervisor who conquered baby blues by stealing £182,000 in illegal wages has been jailed for two-and-a-half years.

Natalie Sissons, the wife of a professional online gambler, gave herself 29 new identities as she fiddled the payroll at Barratt Homes York, the city's crown court heard.

Prosecutor Alan Mitcheson said that by the time a surveyor's chance enquiry revealed her long-running fraud, she had cost her employers more than £200,000.

A total of £181,929 had ended up in her bank account, but it had since vanished. The rest went to the taxman.

Sissons, 34, of Thurlow Avenue, Pocklington, pleaded guilty to 11 counts of theft and asked for 18 more to be taken into consideration.

The Recorder of York, Judge Paul Hoffman, told her: "The fact is, post-natal depression or not, you managed to hold down a serious and full-time job and did it perfectly well."

Mr Mitcheson said Sissons used the identities of 29 labourers who had previously worked for the company.

She authorised payment for work they had not done and sent the money straight to her own bank account.

Between July 4, 2003, and January 11, 2006, she got £181,929 in illegal wages and, because the payments went through the payroll, the company also had to pay tax on them to the taxman. Altogether, the company lost more than £200,000.

But, purely by chance, a surveyor on a Barratt Homes building site in Northallerton questioned why a Mr Scott who was not on the site was being paid for working there. His query alerted accountants and Sissons confessed.

She told police she had been depressed after returning to work from maternity leave.

Mr Mitcheson said: "As a means of resolving that depression, she found it easier to take money from the company rather than go to her GP or seek other help. She became a compulsive taker of the money, and was relieved and glad when she was found out."

Sisson's solicitor advocate, Colin Byrne, said his client and her husband had debts of £34,000, which they had tried unsuccessfully to pay off by selling their house.

Her husband was a professional online gambler, but did not know about the thefts. Household money went on various items, including gambling. He said the couple were now estranged.

The police and Crown Prosecution Service will try to get the money back by asking a judge to confiscate all Sissons' assets at a future court hearing.