Probation officer stole from church

At first Dorothy Satchwell tried to repay the money within days of taking it from the Seventh Day Adventist Church accounts in Bentley, Doncaster, but eventually as the amounts increased over the months she realised she could not do so.

By the time she confessed to a pastor at the church what she had been doing she had stolen about 10,000, Richard Walters, prosecuting, told Leeds Crown Court yesterday.

Satchwell, 43, of St Anne's Road, Belle Vue, Doncaster, who has since resigned from her job with the Probation Service in South Yorkshire, admitted theft. She was given a 12-month prison sentence suspended for 18 months with supervision for 12 months.

Recorder Simon Phillips QC said she had betrayed the trust placed in her by the church depriving valuable projects in the process.

But he accepted she was of previous good character and had suffered mental health issues which could have affected her decision making at the time. She had also brought her offending to an end herself by confessing what she had done after it spiralled out of control.

Mr Walters said Satchwell confessed in 2006 what she had done by making cheques out to herself but it was only after the Charity Commissioners were informed that the police were involved in 2008.

She said at the time she had difficulty paying her son's 2,000-a-term school fees and other bills because she was working only part time through stress and ill health.

Andrew Smith for Satchwell said what had started as borrowing had got out of control. She was subsequently made bankrupt.

She had resigned her employment which was deeply embarrassing to her having been a probation officer in Jamaica for 10 years and in Britain for nine.