A former town council clerk has been found guilty of stealing £2,500 from a council charity account.

Jane Hale had denied the theft of £2,000, £100, and two lots of £200 from a charity account administered by Beccles Town Council.

Hale, a former clerk of the council, was a trustee and signatory to the Diamond Jubilee Aid-in-Sickness Fund, which helps people in the Beccles area. The money was taken from this fund between October 2013 and July last year.

The 57-year-old, who left the council in 2005, insisted she had mistakenly taken the money from the Nationwide account believing it was hers.

She was on trial at Norwich Magistrates Court yesterday.

The court heard Hale of Sale Court, Loddon, ad four or five accounts at Nationwide as well as others at Barclays and believed she had been de-authorised from accessing the charity account, known as B investor, after leaving in 2005.

Rachel Scarrott, prosecuting, said £2,000 was taken from the account by Hale in October 2013 and used to purchase Post Office shares.

The account, which at one time had more than £5,000 in it, had smaller sums taken from it by Hale which were moved into an account used to pay for direct debits.

Giving evidence, Hale said she went into the bank and asked for details of her accounts before taking from the one that had the lowest rate of interest. She said: 'I didn't take the money deliberately – I would've never taken the charity money. I was told by Nationwide it was one of my accounts.'

Simon Nicholls, defending, said his client was a woman of good character who was 'perhaps not as methodical as she should've been' with her accounts but he urged magistrates to take the view that she was not a dishonest person.

Jean Bonnick, chairman of the bench of magistrates, said they were sure that the money transfers were 'acts of dishonesty' and found Hale guilty. Hale was sentenced to a community order of 120 hours' unpaid work, ordered to pay £620 costs and a £60 victim surcharge.

A spokesman for the council and charity, which has had the money paid back, said it was 'disappointing' that the offences had happened.