A former bus operator will face sentencing next year after admitting using bank cards she found in a passenger's purse in a lost and found box at the Public Transportation Board.

Wendy Ebbin, 45, a former employee with PTB admitted to stealing the purse and dishonestly using the bank cards to obtain $3,000 by deception between September 11 and October 30. The single mother-of-two, from Fritholme Gardens, in Paget, also pleaded guilty to forging a bank order form and attempting to obtain another $600 by deception on November 6.

Ebbin, who has since been fired from her job with PTB, is expected to appear back in Magistrates' Court on January 19 for sentencing, after a social inquiry report has been carried out.

She was released on $2,000 bail with one surety yesterday at Magistrates' Court.

The court heard that the victim Collette Bascome forgot her handbag on a bus on September 11, at around 8.20 p.m.

Ms Bascome realised this mistake and called the bus terminal, but was told the purse had not yet been turned in. The victim immediately cancelled her cards, but later noticed $3,000 had been withdrawn from her bank account at HSBC on October 30. She called the bank to look into the matter.

Another bank order for $600 had been made using the same account details and was due to be picked up on November 6. On that day Ebbin came in to the bank claiming to be Ms Bascome; she had three of the victim's bank cards and two printouts with all necessary account details.

However bank staff intercepted and alerted her presence to the Police, who took her to the a Police station for questioning.

Yesterday in court, Ebbin's lawyer Jaymo Durham said his client had faced financial crashes, including an eviction from her home, when "this temptation arose", adding: "We are all human and subject to temptation of the flesh."

Mr. Durham asked Senior Magistrate Archibald Warner to take into account that she is a mother of two children aged 12 and 13 and had to "face the indignity of appearing before the court".

The offence also caused her to lose her job, which in itself had "crystalised the wrongfulness and regretfulness of this offence" for his client.