A BANK worker stole more than £12,000 from elderly customers' accounts and then blamed them for the mix-up.

Barclays employee Ashleigh Bentley took the cash while working at the Darwen branch after getting into a financial mess with her own bills.

Bentley, 28, of Marsh House Lane, Darwen, and who formerly worked at the Haslingden branch, was sacked when bosses discovered thefts totalling £12,800.

She pleaded guilty to five counts of theft and was given 20 weeks in prison, suspended for 18 months, with 18 months supervision by the probation service.

She will also be subjected to a curfew for eight weeks, from 8pm to 7am.

Preston Crown Court was told that in February last year Bentley wrote out a withdrawal slip for an elderly man for £1,000 and signed the paper in his name.

Louise Whaites, prosecuting, said two more similar withdrawals were made, each for £2,000.

The elderly man contacted Barclays to query a transaction on his bank statement, but Bentley told the bank that the man had simply got confused because he was elderly and no further action was taken.

Miss Whaites said in May last year Bentley wrote out a withdrawal slip for a couple's account in the sum of £3,000 that was then paid electronically into the first customer's account.

But before that investigation took place, another offence was committed in July last year.

A man had called into the bank to return his father's bank documents and to freeze the account after his father had died.

The defendant used the man's cheque book to write a cheque for £2,800, which was paid into her own account.

Bentley later told the bank that the money was payment for a car the deceased had earlier bought from her partner, the court was told.

But it became apparent that the man had not been able to drive because of a stroke, and therefore did not have a car.

Miss Whaites said the defendant had been employed by Barclays bank for around two years, initially at the Haslingden branch, before moving to the Darwen branch following maternity leave.

In police interview following her arrest, Bentley said she had had a number of bills and her own bank account had been in a mess, but she had not been able to talk to anyone about her problems.

After the case, a spokesman for Barclays, which repaid about £7,800 of the stolen cash, said: "We take incidents like this extremely seriously and whenever such occurences take place we seek prosecutions.

"We have procedures in place to make sure these type of incidents are kept to a minimum.

"None of our customers will have suffered financially, they will have been reimbursed."