A SINGLE parent struggling with debt stole money she was collecting on behalf of work colleagues for a Christmas Club.

Blackburn magistrates heard that Diane Keen was offered a conditional caution after her workmates at Springfield Nursing Home told police they didn't want her to go to court.

But Keen was not able to repay the £300 she stole in the allotted time and was charged with the offence.

Keen, 43, of Foxstones Crescent, Blackburn, was given a conditional discharge for 12 months and ordered to pay £300 compensation.

Catherine Allan, defending, said Keen ran the Christmas Club at Springfield Nursing Home each year. She lost her employment in October and in November a colleague checked with the Christmas Club company only to be told all the money had not been paid into the account.

"That colleague had paid the money so she could give her family a good Christmas," said Miss Allan.

Roger Pickles, defending, said that at the time of the offence, Keen had been under a lot of pressure from the local authority to pay her council tax.

"As is often the case she started borrowing from the Christmas Club but then was unable to pay the money back," said Mr Pickles. "She is very ashamed of what she did."

He said the offer of a caution on condition that Keen repaid the money had followed representations from the main victim that she and the other people who had lost money did not want to see Keen taken to court.