A PERSONAL assistant who stole more than £80,000 from her employers has been jailed for nine months.

Horse owner Marie Davies was in debt when she started taking the money from Sedgewick Independent Financial Consultants in Tower View, Kings Hill, near West Malling.

Maidstone Crown Court heard that the 33-year-old mother-of-one was a PA to a number of managers at the company, part of the Barclays Bank group, where she had worked for four years.

Anne Phillips, prosecuting, said Davies, of Beauvoir Drive, Kemsley, Sittingbourne, started using her business credit card in February last year to finance her lifestyle.

It included livery for her horses, vet bills, shopping and train fares to work. She also created false invoices to fictitious companies and then authorised payments into various accounts.

After the offences came to light in May, Davies, formerly of Stratford Drive, Maidstone, made full admissions. She admitted 17 charges of theft and 18 of false accounting and asked for 33 similar offences to be considered.

David Bannocks, defending, said Davies had damaged nerve endings and had extreme mental and physical fragility. He urged the court to impose a suspended sentence.

But Recorder Andrew Bright, QC, said: "I am afraid I am driven to conclude that the only sentence I can pass is immediate custody. It seems your indulgence in horses may be part of the explanation as to why you found it difficult to make ends meet."