A WALLINGFORD school secretary stashed almost £40,000 in cash, cheques and school vouchers in her wardrobe —because she said she was too busy to bank it.

Carolyn Frampton, formerly of St Nicholas Infants’ School, Walling-ford, pleaded guilty to four counts of theft when she appeared at Oxford Crown Court on Monday.

She was ordered to pay £15,000 compensation, meaning she will have to remortgage her house.

Trudi Yeatman, defending, said Frampton “found herself inundated with responsibility, with too many things to do and not enough time to do it”.

She had initially banked money, from dinner money and trip fees, every day, but found it “so burdensome” that she began to put it off, she said.

Miss Yeatman added: “She ended up with a filing cabinet in her office crammed with Tesco vouchers, cheques and cash. “It was a complete mess. She was in a muddle.”

The court heard the school had no system of recording money flow.

Miss Yeatman said: “Simply, this money came in, it went to the back of a filing cabinet and it stayed there.

“It wasn’t banked and nobody noticed.”

With an Ofsted inspection looming, Frampton took the money and vouchers home and dumped them in her wardrobe, Miss Yeatman said.

She added: “She deeply, deeply regrets her actions and she is remorseful for what happened.”

The 47-year-old defendant, who spent £300 of the money, was given a suspended jail sentence after earlier admitting four counts of theft totalling about £39,500.

Frampton worked at the school between 1997 and 2009, but her offending did not come to light until an audit in January this year, the court was told.

Kevin West, prosecuting, said: “No dinner money received between September 2008 and September 2009, when she left the school, was banked.

“During the period, about £52,000 was paid to the school, but only approximately £12,500 was banked.”

When police visited Frampton’s home in Fir Tree Avenue, Wallingford, they found about 19,000 Tesco schools vouchers worth about £600, £18,811 in cheques and £22,826.82 in cash.

The value of the cheques, some of which had expired and cannot be cashed, were about £10 each, Mr West said.

He added: “She paid £300 into her own account, which she told police in interview was ‘to get rid of it’.”

Oxfordshire County Council reimbursed the school for the missing amounts, the court heard.

Frampton was given six months’ jail, suspended for 18 months, and ordered to do 200 hours’ unpaid work.

She was also ordered to pay £15,000 in compensation within six months and said she would remortgage her house to do so.

Judge Anthony King said a two-year prison sentence would have been appropriate had some of the money not been recovered and had Frampton benefited more financially.

A school statement said: “This was a serious breach of trust and very upsetting for school staff and governors.

“The majority of the money has already been recovered and we are attempting to recover further amounts.

“The school has now put in place new accounting systems to ensure this cannot happen again.”