THE relief manager of a village convenience store stole more than £3,000 to finance his gambling habit, Kennet magistrates heard.

Jonathan Walker, 41, of Lottage Road, Aldbourne, appeared before the before the court in Devizes on Monday and pleaded guilty to three charges of theft of cash from the store.

Rachel Hume, prosecuting, told the bench that Walker, the relief manager at Allday's store in Aldbourne, had phoned the police and told them the money had been stolen from his car while he stopped off to post a letter shortly after midday on July 22.

But police were suspicious about Walker's story, especially after hearing that the keyholder of the premises was called out to an alarm activation at the shop the night before and had found Walker at the shop.

Walker claimed he had left his insulin at the premises and had accidentally set off the alarm while searching for it.

Alerted by this and other irregularities, police searched Walker's home and discovered he was in debt to an unmanageable extent due to his gambling habit.

In a full and frank admission to police Walker said his debt had spiralled out of control and on July 19 he had taken £500 cash from the shop to gamble at a casino in Reading, hoping to recoup his earlier losses. He lost the entire sum.

Then on July 20 he took £1,800 and attempted to extricate himself by gambling the money. Again he lost the lot.

On July 22 he took another £1,073 and made his way to the casino, where he once more lost the lot.

Mrs Hume said: "He didn't know what to do, so he made up the story about the money having been stolen. He had not started out with a deliberate plan of stealing the money. He admits it was a hare-brained scheme. He even admitted gambling his lodger's rent money away.

"He has lost his wife, his job and his income through his addiction. But he has faced up to matters and has been entirely co-operative with the police."

But Mrs Hume said Walker had betrayed the confidence of his employers. She said: "He was in a position of responsibility with regard to the money. His duty was to bank it but he took it to pay off his gambling debts."

Malcolm Wieck, defending, said Walker's appearance at Swindon Central police station after his arrest had been a defining moment in his life.

Mr Wieck said: "He decided that honesty was the right policy to adopt ."

Presiding magistrate Jackie Lampard said that Walker most probably faced a jail sentence.

She said: "The offences were aggravated by the fact of the blatant cover-up with the false story, the non-legitimate use to which the money was put, the fact there were three offences in a short period and the flagrant breach of trust."

She and her two colleagues on the bench called for a pre-sentence report and adjourned the case to Andover Magistrates' Court on August 29, where there are facilities for taking offenders into custody.

She did not rule out sending the case to Crown Court if the bench decided that their powers of sentence were not sufficient. Magistrates can jail offenders for up to 12 months if more than one offence is involved.

Yesterday a spokesman for Gamblers Anonymous said the problem of people gambling their wages, borrowed sums or money taken illegally was on the increase. He said gambling was a secretive addiction unlike alcoholism or drug and substance addictions which can be seen physically.