A cleaner managed to steal £64,000 from gaming machines while working at a motorway service station.

Team leader Fatima Guerreiro slipped the cash into her apron as she helped empty the machines at the Road Chef on the M20 at Hollingbourne.

After going to the toilets and transferring the cash into her underwear she frittered it away on her own gambling habit.

Bosses at first estimated she stole as much as £81,000 between November 2014 and December 2015, before settling on £64,146.

But the 46-year-old mother was spared jail after a judge at Maidstone Crown Court told her: “I have no doubt this whole process has been shocking in its impact and you will struggle to live with your shame hereafter.”

Guerreiro, of Birchington Close, Maidstone, was sentenced to 15 months’ imprisonment suspended for 18 months and ordered to complete 200 hours unpaid work.

When questioned, Guerreiro, who admitted theft, said it initially happened when a £20 note fell into her pocket and she took it home. She then took increasing amounts.

Passing sentence, Judge Julian Smith said of the offence: “This process has been humiliating and hurtful to you and your family. You expressed remorse.”

A proceeds of crime hearing will be held in July.