A TREASURER of Penparc’s Cylch Meithrin left the organisation unable to pay bills and with under £2 in its bank account after stealing almost £17,000, magistrates have heard.

Catrin Davies, of Bwthyn Lleine in Ferwig, will be sentenced in Swansea Crown Court after magistrates heard she had taken advantage of her position as volunteer treasurer to steal the money to ease her financial problems.

Davies, 32, admitted a charge of fraud by abuse of position by stealing £16,986 between 1 September 2015 and 31 December 2016, although defence solicitor Alan Lewis said while there was some issues around the amount in the charge, it was not enough to be likely to alter the sentence and Davies was eager to plead guilty to the charge.

Prosecutor Rhian Jones said Davies’ position had meant she was responsible for paying bills and staff wages and had access to the Cylch Meithrin’s bank account and paying in book.

An investigation was launched after Davies stood down as treasurer and handed over bank statements to her replacement which was missing information. Full details were sought from the bank which showed that the information provided by Davies had been falsified.

Ms Jones said payments had been made into a bank under the heading ‘Mudiad’ to suggest it had gone to the group that runs the Cylch Meithrin, however Ms Jones said that account was not linked to the organisation at all.

While payments of £13,000 could be traced, Ms Jones said there were further payments which could not be accounted for.

In a police interview Davies said she had been going through financial difficulties at the time and had transferred money into her account.

Ms Jones said the fraud had left the Cylch Meithrin with less than £2 in its account with the group unable to pay bills and seeing cheques bounce.

Mr Lewis said it was accepted that Davies had repaid around £4,000 to the group and said that Davies had cooperated fully with the police, but said he accepted that the case should go to the crown court for sentencing.

Davies was released on unconditional bail until a sentencing hearing on 20 October.