A former bank worker has been given a nine-month suspended prison sentence after admitting stealing more than $30,000 from her employers.

Davina Ratteray, 32, of Roberts Avenue, Devonshire, stole the money while working as a clerk for the Bank of Butterfield over a two-year period from 1996.

The single mother managed to steal a total of $30,260 during her stint at the bank. In a court appearance earlier this year she pleaded guilty to six counts of theft and asked for another 36 offences to be taken into consideration.

Before being sentenced in Magistrates' Court yesterday Ratteray apologised to the court and said she needed the money to pay for her daughter's schooling.

And she added that she had since managed to pay off more than half the cash and planned to continue making payments until the debt had been cleared. She confirmed that she had just started a new full-time job at the Cablevision company.

"I am extremely sorry for what I did,'' Ratteray said.

"But at the time I was under a lot of financial pressure. I am a single mother with a ten-year-old daughter. She was in a private school at the time and things were becoming difficult for me to handle. That's the reason I did what I did.'' But Magistrate Archie Warner expressed concern that the crimes had been committed over a lengthy period of time.

"This was not only stealing, it was stealing while in a position of trust,'' he said.

"Not only did you steal from your employer, you stole in a systematic fashion over a period of time. That, and the amount, makes it an extremely serious crime.

"It is often said that the most eloquent form of mitigation is repayment and, to your credit, you have repaid over half the amount that was stolen.

"These offences definitely merit a custodial sentence. However, taking everything into consideration, I find that there are exceptional circumstances, which doesn't excuse your behaviour in any way.'' The nine month term was suspended for 18 months.