A deputy hotel manager in Dorset used the hotel's credit card system to buy £5,000 worth of credit on an internet gambling site, a court has heard.

Shaun Arp, 41, who had worked at the Manor House Hotel in Studland, near Swanage, admitted a series of theft charges, over an 18-period, when he appeared before Dorchester Crown Court.

He was given an eight-month suspended jail sentence, and was ordered to repay the hotel £1,800 and to carry out 150 hours community service.

The court heard that Arp credited his own cards from the hotel's account and then gambled the money.

He tried to cover his tracks by discounting customers accounts but the scam was uncovered when Barclays alerted the hotel to an unusual spending pattern.

Prosecutor Jo Morrissey said: "He was completely trusted up until this incident to run the hotel in the manager's absence."

Recorder Adam Vaitilingam told Arp that only an early admission of guilt had saved him from jail.

He said: "You were the deputy manager of the Manor House Hotel in Studland and you were completely trusted by your manager.

"It was not just a spontaneous theft. It was a series of carefully planned thefts and you tried to cover up what you had done by some form of false accounting. What you did over 18 months or so was a serious offence."

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By Andrew Smith

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