A NOTTINGHAM electrician has escaped an immediate prison sentence after he kept £8,000 paid into his bank account in error by a former employer.
Instead of returning the money. 45-year-old Tony Mellors moved the bulk of the cash into his partner's account and used the rest to pay bills.
Mellors was given a three-month sentence, suspended for a year, for two offences of theft when he appeared at Shrewsbury Crown Court on Thursday.
He was convicted of stealing £7,000 and £1,250 in June, 2011, from PMS Electrical Services, after a trial at Nottingham Crown Court last month.
Judge Peter Barrie said the theft was "opportunistic" for a skilled man with a history of being a hard worker.
He said a moment's care would have confirmed a payment from an employer from two years earlier must have been a mistake.
"You transferred the money the next day and not a penny was returned to the company," he said.
Judge Barrie said that a letter from the company revealed that the loss of the cash played a significant part in employees being put on short-time working.
Mellors, of Cavendish Road, Carlton, was also ordered to complete 200 hours' unpaid work.
Under a Proceeds of Crime Act confiscation order, he must pay a nominal £1 after inquiries showed Mellors' criminal benefit was £8,000, but that he had no realisable assets.
The court heard Mellors was employed by PMS Electrical Services, of Kestral Business Centre, Colwick, just before Christmas 2009.
Robert Edwards, prosecuting, said that he was there for just five weeks on £1,000-a-week wages paid directly to his bank account.
He said the online banking transfer error was made on June 8, 2011.
Mellors was arrested a month later and refused to comment in police interviews..
Justine Robinson, for Mellors, said her client had been a skilled electrician for 20 years and had now lost his good character.
She said he was now unemployed and his prospects were poor, he was in the process of a divorce and faced being declared bankrupt.