SUB-POSTMISTRESS Patricia Graham, who stole £14,000 as she struggled to keep her shop afloat was spared jail after villagers wrote letters of support.

The mum-of-two, of Pillowell Road, Whitecroft, admitted defrauding the Royal Mail and theft of £14,000 over a one-year period ending in June last year.

The 58-year-old told Gloucester Crown Court that it started when she tried to pay back an ATM transaction error of £4,000 out of her own money.

But she later started using the funds for day-to-day expenses, supporting her son in the last year of university and to buy stock after her main suppliers refused her credit.

Passing sentence on her, Judge Jamie Tabor QC said he would normally consider a jail sentence of one to three years, but it was an exceptional case.

He said he would take into account her 19 years of 'valuable and responsible' service to her community.

"I have received many letters from members of your community, including police officers and the like, all saying what a valuable service you have performed," the judge told her.

"There is not a suspicion or hint that you started to behave dishonestly until very recently, at a time when we all know that the economy slid downwards and life became financially more difficult."

Prosecutor Anthony Vines said Graham's offences were discovered when a Royal Mail audit was carried out on June 22, 2011.

A deficiency of £21,057 was discovered and when she arrived at the shop to find the audit under way she said "Why have I been so stupid?"

Defence counsel Andrew Davidson described her as a woman of impeccable previous character who was highly thought of in her community.

Her husband of 30 years, who is in poor health, was kept in the dark about the offences, which started in the summer of 2010,

"She was doing her utmost to support the shop and the community," said Mr Davidson.

"She was struggling in the shop, and at home too.

"She got herself into such a state that she didn't know what to do.

She had a false hope that she could repay it but the situation became exacerbated."

Judge Tabor sentenced her to a 12 months' jail term suspended for two years and ordered her to do 300 hours of unpaid work for the community.

He also placed her under curfew from 9pm-6am for the next six months, telling her: "You will have to bear the stigma of a tag for that time. That is a form of imprisonment."