Accounts clerk Kayleigh McCaffer, aged 20, took cash for purchases, repairs and service bills at the Nissan dealership, All Saints, Wolverhampton. Wolverhampton crown court heard she would take cash but not enter it on records at the Birmingham Road firm.

A manager became suspicious when £16,000 was not entered on the system properly.

McCaffer, of Willow Drive, Tividale, insisted it was a mistake, but the financial controller looked more closely at the company’s books and uncovered the fraud. The total amount of money stolen was £25,410.

The court heard that McCaffer had become addicted to gambling and had won £16,000 on an internet slot machine part way through her fraud, which ran from March to October last year.

Recorder Mr Benjamin Nicholls said: “Businesses like car dealerships have considerable overheads and in the current economic climate all businesses are struggling to make sales.”

He said: “The trust that your employers put in you was high.” McCaffer “engaged in the fatal gambling habit of trying to build on winnings instead of stopping,” he added.

McCaffer admitted five thefts and asked for 58 others to be taken into consideration.

She was given a 12 month prison sentence, suspended for two years.

McCaffer will also be supervised in the community and was given a curfew banning her from leaving home at night.

The accounts clerk, who progressed through the firm after starting as a Saturday worker in 2006, is now paying back the money and has sold her £7,000 car to help, the court was told.