A WOMAN who used cash from a post office she was running to keep her village store going has been given a suspended prison sentence.

Barbara Maher fell to temptation in a bid to meet bills for the shop, where the Post Office was housed.

A cash shortage of more than £9,000 was found when an audit was carried out at the premises in Slaidburn.

Maher, 56, of Beckside, Slaidburn, pleaded guilty to two counts of false accounting and was given a 12-month prison sentence, suspended for 12 months.

The court was told that Slaidburn sub-post office was run within a larger village store, and Maher had been sub-postmistress since March 2001.

Anne Brown, prosecuting on behalf of Royal Mail, said in June last year an auditor went to the Post Office. He noticed anomalies. Maher said a cash shortage of £9,675 was down to money being transferred to keep the shop going, using post office cash.

Defence barrister Simon Newell said the situation had arisen, not out of any pre-planning or premeditation, but from a combination of circumstances.