A former employee at the St Neots branch of Barclays has been jailed for three years after stealing £176,000 from the bank to fund his gambling addiction.

Joshua Bridgeman, of Lee Close, Cottenham, near Cambridge, was charged with theft over a five-year period, which started in 2007 when he was at St Neots.

Cambridge Crown Court head how the 28-year-old, who had worked his way up to assistant manager at the Ely branch, had created fictitious transfers to move money around before creaming off surplus cash.

He had been taking up to £6,000 a month, created false documents to move cash between accounts, but he was caught following an internal investigation in March 2012.

Bridgeman claimed he had not taken a penny but admitted falsifying documents, which he said had been an attempt to solve an error he had discovered.

He was convicted on Tuesday (February 18) following a trial and was sentenced to three years in prison.

Detective Constable Sharon Garrett from the Economic Crime Unit, said: “Bridgeman was a highly valued and trusted member of the bank.

“He had worked himself up to assistant manager and would be sent to other branches as a trouble-shooter. He knew the systems inside out having worked for the bank since leaving school and was able to use that knowledge to avoid detection for some time.

“He stole a huge amount of money and the sentence shows how seriously such a breach of trust is taken by the courts.”