A YOUNG mum conned Southampton General Hospital out of thousands of pounds after forging her manager’s signature to fudge her work timesheets.

Aneta Drywa pleaded guilty to forging the signature to gain extra money from the hospital.

Southampton Magistrates’ Court heard how the 20-year-old was alleged to have stolen £4,200, but admitted to stealing nearly £2,500 from the hospital between June and November 2016.

Prosecutor Dan O’Neill said that across the four months Drywa, of Chatsworth Road, Eastleigh, had claimed to work an additional 236 hours.

Drywa, who now works at a petrol station, was employed by an agency who secured her employment at the hospital.

Mr O’Neill said: “The time sheet was completed by the defendant and inflated.

“It was sent to her agency and in order to obtain that payment, she had to increase the numbers by forging her manager’s signature.”

Drywa’s defence Louise Morgan said her client started her employment at the general hospital in August 2015 but did not begin offending until June the following year.

Miss Morgan added: “She has realised she should not have done what she has done and she is sorry for doing it.”

A probation report was compiled on Drywa before she was sentenced, which found the mother-of-two to be “more concerned about her own circumstances” and not displaying “victim empathy”.

The officer who wrote the report told the court: “She said she did the forging at the time due to her financial difficulties.”

She added that Drywa, who has a three-year-old and two-month-old baby, had one previous conviction which was for not paying for a railway fare.

In sentencing, magistrates placed a 12-month community order on Drywa.

She has been ordered to pay £2,434.56 back to the hospital.

Due to her financial circumstances Drywa was not ordered to pay a victim surcharge or costs.