FORMER sub-postmaster Harold Churchill has admitted stealing more than £34,000 from the Post Office.

Churchill, 57, who ran Bratton Post Office and shop until his suspension in March, will now go before a crown court judge for sentencing.

He pleaded guilty to stealing £34,850, between August 26, 1998 and March 2 this year, when he appeared at North West Wiltshire Magistrates' Court in Trowbridge last Friday.

Tim Clayton, prosecuting for the Post Office, said an audit in 1998 found the sub-post office books did not add up and further checks by head office revealed discrepancies.

He said when a full audit was carried out in March, Churchill took the auditor to one side and said the Post Office would be in the region of £34,000 short.

Mr Clayton said: "An analysis was subsequently made into the cash account documentation and overnight cash figures. Inquiries revealed there was a substantial discrepancy.

"It appeared he had been artificially inflating the cash figure in the cash account to cover."

Churchill, who was sub-postmaster at Bratton for 13 years, had no previous convictions.

Andrew Watts-Jones, defending, said Churchill had been adamant throughout that although he knew he should not be doing it, he had been borrowing the money.

He said had Churchill managed to get a mortgage, as he had been in the process of doing, and repaid the money he would not have found himself in court.

Mr Watts-Jones said: "This was not something he set out to do in the sense of a dishonest course of events.

"This came about because of a lack of business acumen aided and abetted by banks allowing him to take more money and extremely lax accounting. It beggars belief that anybody could do this over this period of time and not be stopped very quickly indeed."

The case was adjourned for a crown court sentencing hearing. Churchill was released on unconditional bail until that date.