WARMINSTER-based soldier accountant staff sergeant Richard Hanley was thrown out of the army and jailed on Monday for fiddling his regiment's accounts.

A court martial on Salisbury Plain heard he used the money he took as extra spending money while he was on holiday in Florida.

Sgt Hanley, 33, of the Adjutant General's corps, attached to the Green Howards, admitted three charges of theft involving a total of 2,858.81 German marks, about £900 sterling.

Army prosecutor Lieutenant Colonel Nick Clapham said the offences occurred while the regiment was in Germany. They were discovered while the NCO was on holiday in the United States.

He said checks showed he had issued separate receipts for sergeants' mess bar takings and surplus stock.

But while he had paid the takings into the bank he had not banked the other monies.

Arrested the day he returned to work from holiday, he said he had kept the money and used it as extra spending cash while in America.

Asked why he had done it he said: "Stupidness." He told army police: "I thought I could get away with it."

Sgt Hanley, a veteran of Northern Ireland and the former Yugoslavia with 15 years' army service, was described by soldier colleagues as "loyal and dedicated".

Defending counsel David Richards claimed: "It was only shortly before going on holiday that he decided to use the money on his holiday."

He said the NCO had always intended to repay the money and the court at Bulford Camp, near Salisbury, heard that he had later done so.

The court told him that dishonesty by an army accountant could not be tolerated. He was sentenced to 120 days' imprisonment, dismissed from the army and reduced to the ranks.