A parent stole almost $43,000 from the Gilbert Institute after-school programme and forged cheques drawn on its bank account, a prosecutor has claimed.

Lee Brown, 49, had a child at the school in St. Michael's Road, Paget, and was in charge of the programme at the time of the alleged crimes.

Her trial on eight charges spanning the period November 2003 to April 2005 began at Supreme Court yesterday.

Senior Crown counsel Paula Tyndale told the jury the first count of theft related to an allegation that Brown failed to pay $30,893 takings from the programme into the bank as she should have.

A second theft charge alleges that she stole another $12,034.92 from the account by forging signatures on cheques.

Six forgery charges relate to cheques totalling $6,090 upon which Brown is accused of forging signatures from co-signees. The prosecutor claimed she then presented these to pay bills, to the detriment of the programme.

Brown, from St. David's, denies the allegations.

Summarising the case for the Crown, Ms Tyndale said the Parent Teacher Association at the Gilbert Institute founded the after school programme in 2000 to look after children between 3.30 p.m and 5.45 p.m until their parents could pick them up.

Around 2003, Brown took on the leadership of the programme as voluntary role working alongside other parent volunteers and some paid employees.

According to the prosecutor, she took possession of the cheque book for the programme's account at the Bank of Bermuda, which was set up to collect fees paid by parents.

Ms Tyndale claimed that an administrative assistant would put the receipts, cash and cheques together in an envelope and hand them to Brown along with a deposit slip. However, she only paid portions of the money into the bank - and was unable to account for the resulting shortfall.

The prosecutor told the seven women and five men of the jury that although the case involves a school and a female defendant who may give "explanations about hardship", they must not be swayed by emotions.

"You have to be dispassionate. You have to be objective. You can't let sympathy either for the school or the defendant cloud the issues or influence your decision one way or the other," she urged.

The jury also heard from witness Christine Place, who has been the administrative assistant at the Gilbert Institute for 16 years and also fulfilled that role for the after school programme between 2000 and 2005.

She detailed how she would collect monies from students enrolled on the programme and issue receipts for them to give to their parents. Ms Place said she used to make sure the monies and receipts balanced before handing the takings over to Brown with a deposit slip to pay into the bank.

The defendant, who works as an administrative assistant at the Elbow Beach Hotel, is on bail and the case continues.