A civilian employee at a Suffolk RAF base who stole more than £70,000 from mess accounts has been jailed.

Zowie Davis, 38, spent more than two and a half years helping herself to cheques and cash, Ipswich Crown Court heard.

Davis, formerly of Honington, near Bury St Edmunds but who has spent the last 18 months in a psychiatric unit, had pleaded guilty to fraud by abuse of position.

Jailing her for 18 months, Judge Christopher Morgan said she had failed to provide any explanation for her offending and he rejected any link between her condition and her behaviour.

Between February 2012 and October 2014, Davis failed to keep proper records in her role as mess clerk for the officers' and sergeants' messes and the accounts became overdrawn, said Joanne Eley, prosecuting. Managers launched an investigation after blank cheque stubs were discovered and cash could not be accounted for.

Davis as suspended from her job in October 2014 and tendered her resignation by email the next day.

Miss Eley said that £23,040 in cash and £49,650 in cheques had been taken by Davis and paid into her own bank accounts.

Appearing for Davis, Maria Dineen said she was unable to offer any explanation for her client's offending.

Davis, who was 'truly sorry' said a he had little recollection of taking the money, said Miss Dineen.

The fraud had begun around the time that Davis' husband was away on active service for six months and she had then, as well as at other times, had to cope by herself, said Miss Dineen.

Davis, a mother-of-three and married to a serving member of the armed forces, had been diagnosed as suffering from severe depression and after a period as a voluntary psychiatric patient had been detained under the Mental Health Act since December 2014.

Sentencing Davis, Judge Morgan: 'I have sympathy for you but there is no link between your current predicament and your offending. You have provided no explanation.'

The fraud had been a 'significant' breach of trust, stealing from mess facilities which provided an essential service for personnel, said Judge Morgan.