A PETROL station cashier and her sister jailed for a credit card scam which resulted in more than £8,000 being stolen from the garage, must stay behind bars.

Burnley Crown Court heard how single mother Amanda Clements, 31, then working at Dill Hall Lane Service Station, Church, and mother-of-five Susan Clements, 34, covered up the theft by using credit cards belonging to Susan Clements and others.

They had earlier been jailed for two months by magistrates for the four-month fraud, which involved 114 transactions at the garage. The sisters had been rumbled after a credit card company queried the number of transactions going through on one or more of the cards.

They appealed against the prison sentences but were sent back to custody after a judge, sitting with two magistrates, threw out their claims the terms were too harsh.

Judge Raymond Bennett said he thought the Hyndburn magistrates had been right to impose jail and added the sisters' sentences had been on the lenient rather than the heavy side.

Amanda Clements, of Elizabeth Street, Accrington, who had no previous convictions, and Susan Clements, who lives in Leeds, had earlier both admitted theft.

The court was told the credit cards were used to remove cash from the till. The money was replaced with credit.

The cards were up to their limits and could not be swiped so Amanda Clements put in the numbers manually. The scam was thought up by Susan Clements and put into operation by her co-defendant.

Chris Dunn, representing both, said the women effectively used their own credit cards and always intended to pay the debts off. They were now doing so. Amanda Clements knew what she did was wrong and was extremely sorry.

Mr Dunn added: "The appellants have been to prison and it has been deeply unpleasant for them."