A RESTAURANT manager helped herself to £1,200 of her former partner's cash and spent it on rent and bills, a court heard.

Burnley Crown Court heard single mother-of-two Alison Fleming, 36, had spent money, thinking her relationship with Barry Thompson would go further.

After it ended and she felt she was left out of pocket, she took the cash from under a mattress at Three Sisters Restaurant, Edenfield, where Mr Thompson was the manager.

Fleming, now managing a restaurant in Summerseat, was given a two-year conditional discharge and told to pay £1,200 compensation and £300 costs.

Judge Christopher Cornwall said he did not think he needed to pass community punishment. Fleming, of Dundee Lane, Ramsbottom, admitted theft.

June Morris, prosecuting, said Fleming and Mr Thompson had been partners for two years but by last May the relationship had been over for six months.

The pair lived together at the Three Sisters and the defendant had known Mr Thompson put money under the mattress for safe keeping.

Fleming took the £1,200 without permission. It was the Crown's case the defendant, who had originally been charged with burglary, took £1,600, but returned £400.

In Fleming's defence, the court was told she had thought the relationship was going to go a stage further and she took out a deposit on rented accommodation on that understanding.

The relationship then ended and she felt she had been caused a loss.

Fleming immediately used the money she took to sort out the financial difficulties she found herself in.

She could compensate the victim in full.