A PENSIONER who stole from her Chepstow employer and defrauded her neighbours to the tune of £20,000 has been told to re-pay a portion of the money back.

Christine Hill, 68, was sentenced at Cardiff Crown Court in February, after admitting one count of theft and another of fraud.

She had confessed to stealing £17,200 working as a cashier and then a manager at the New Hall Farm Shop at Chepstow Garden Centre from September 2008 to May 2011.

She had also pleaded guilty to a £2,800 fraud working as a bookkeeper between October 2008 and August 2012 on a Shirenewton development she lived on.

Yesterday (Fri), she was told to pay £1,351.74 of the money back under the Proceeds of Crime Act, money she raised from selling her own home, the Crown Prosecution Service said.

The court heard how Hill, now of Azalea Drive in Cheltenham, had been disowned by her former neighbours on Home Farm Court.

Heath Edwards, defending, said Hill only turned to crime after her husband became ill, her mother died and to “stay afloat” after the failure of her business. Her husband has since died.

She was given a prison sentence of 16 months suspended for two years for the garden centre theft and six months imprisonment also suspended for two years for the Home Farm Court fraud. Those sentences will run concurrently.