A CREDIT controller who altered a £2,000 company cheque and tried to pay it into her own bank account was given a four-week prison sentence.

Swindon magistrates heard that Sheila Tracy, of Cromer Court, Liden, filled in the correct payee details in pencil, took the cheque for £2,232.52 to be authorised, then changed the details to her own.

She admitted attempting to obtain cash by deception.

Emily Downing, prosecuting, told the court that the alarm was raised when the accountant in the finance department of High-worth firm MMG GB Ltd was faxed by Barclays Bank, who suspected the cheque had originally been made payable to someone else.

Tracy, 55, who had debts of £1,000 and previous convictions for theft from an employer, confessed and told police she had been at the firm for five months, but had recently been asked to take on more responsibilities.

She claimed she had not noticed she had written the cheque in pencil until after it was signed. She then realised she could make it out to herself.

Philip Hall, defending, said Tracy had told her employers of her previous convictions and was not put into a cash handling post.

She had done her best to avoid taking on the extra responsibility but had eventually succumbed to pressure from her bosses.

"Temptation stared her in the face and totally overcame her. It was one of the most inept offences you can imagine."

The cheque had been detected within a day, he added.

Tracy, who has since found another job which doesn't involve handling cash, was granted bail pending an appeal against her sentence.