A WOMAN has been ordered to carry out a 200-hour community punishment order after stealing more than £11,000.

Emma Louise Swales (25), of Leach Street, Prestwich, was sentenced on Wednesday in Bolton after admitting falsifying accounts and committing fraud while employed at the Mill Gate shopping centre, Bury, in 1999.

The court heard that while working as an administration assistant at the shopping centre, owned by Westfield Shopping Towns Ltd, Swales' employers were so impressed by her progress that they promoted her to centre account administrator.

The new role involved her overseeing the finances for the company and handling the daily banking of cash, which mounted to approximately £2m a quarter.

When she left the company, in June 2003, a discrepancy in the amount paid by Bury Council for CCTV was found, and the figures did not balance throughout the accounts.

Rachael Faux, prosecuting told the court that Mrs Swales was contacted at home and, in an arranged meeting, she told Mr Colin Nichol, general manager of the Mill Gate, that she had been moving money around within the accounts to balance the funds.

Mrs Swales had taken money home, and had £4,000 of the cash at home under her bed, which, after the meeting in August last year, she took back to the Mill Gate.

She was arrested in October and in January this year admitted stealing a total of £11,578 and falsifying accounts at the Mill Gate.

Elizabeth Nichols, for the defence, said: "Mrs Swales had absolutely no explanation for what happened. She had no money problems.

"But the job was something that she could not cope with, because of the stress. It was just too much for her.

"She takes full responsibility for this but the young lady soon found herself out of her depth.

"All the money has now been recovered and repaid."

Judge Kushner QC, who sentenced Swales at Bolton Crown Court, said that the crime was so serious it warranted a custodial sentence.

She told Swales: "I would normally be expected to send you to prison. But I think this has been a very bizarre episode in your life. I presume it was to do with the stress of the job. I know the community punishment order will be difficult for you because it is not the kind of thing you would normally find yourself undertaking, and it is the step before being sent to prison."

Swales, who took another clerical job after leaving the Mill Gate, is still in employment.