A CASHIER who embezzled £300,000 from the building society she worked at to fund her gambling addiction has been jailed for 15 months.

Elaine Barrett, 52, a mother of four, pocketed money from 49 accounts at Nationwide Building Society in Cambridge Street, Glasgow, to fund her online roulette gambling habit.

When someone went to the bank to close their account and move the money to another account, she would give them a receipt with a note of their money and transfer the cash to a made up account.

She was snared when a handwritten cheque for £9229 transferring money from a woman's account that was closed to a fictitious account was spotted.

Barrett, of Hill Street, Ardrossan, Ayrshire, had pleaded guilty at Glasgow Sheriff Court to embezzling £300,000 between January 2008 and January 2010.

Sheriff Bill Totten told her there was no alternative sentence to custody. He said: "It was a serious breach of trust and a large amount of money was involved."

Procurator fiscal depute Ruth Ross-Davie had told the Barrett was able to get away with her scam because she had set up transactions when a customer would approach about closing their account and transfer money in to a longer term savings account.

Ms Ross-Davie added: "The customer would then not be inclined to check that account very regularly."

In January 2010, after an investigation and 18 years of working as a trusted employee, Barrett resigned.

The court heard that after the society paid back the money to its customers it was left with a shortfall of £300,000.

Defence advocate James Irvine said the offences began after a series of events in 2007.

These included Barrett's husband's licensing business collapsing, their house being repossessed, her father dying and finding her husband was having an affair.

The court heard her gambling started after the death of her father and the money she took was solely for that.