AN education manager duped her bosses out of 1.7m supermarket reward points, a court heard.

Alison Robinson is accused of putting the points on her own Nectar card when they should have gone to two Hampshire colleges where she worked. She claims that the points were a thank you gift from the catering firm with which she placed orders worth about £850,000.

Winchester Crown Court was told that she siphoned the extra income – more than £8,000 – for shopping, usually at Sainsbury’s.

Justin Gau, prosecuting, said that Robinson used the scam at Sparsholt College, near Winchester, and South Downs College, Waterlooville.

She joined the latter in 1993 as operations manager and applied for a Nectar card in 2005, which she linked to the college, he added.

Mr Gau said that she received loyalty points thanks to a contract with catering wholesaler Brakes.

Two points are usually awarded for every £1 spent and the court heard that she netted 1,227,420 points through the contract, equivalent to paying more than £600,000.

The points were worth more than £6,000 in cash terms, said Mr Gau, and she collected them until early 2008.

This was despite moving jobs to Sparsholt College six months earlier, where she held the same post, the court heard.

While at the college she netted 452,516 Nectar points, equivalent to spending more than £225,000. The court heard that the points were worth about £2,500 and should have gone to the college.

Mr Gau said: “She was not just aware that she was receiving these points, she was using them to do the family shop.”

He added that Robinson claimed that the points were a gift from catering firm Brakes.

“If this was a ‘thank you’ from Brakes, all I can say is that they were jolly grateful,”

he added.

He said that Brakes denied knowledge of the gifts, and Sparsholt College’s policy was to declare any gifts worth more than £25.

College bosses confronted her in March 2010 while she was already going through redundancy, the court heard.

At first Robinson said she was framed and described the loyalty card being in her name as “bizarre”, said Mr Gau.

She later admitted that it was hers and told the court that she was unsure how to act when confronted.

She said: “I felt trapped in that environment.

“I didn’t consider that I’d done anything wrong but I felt ambushed because the questions just kept coming.”

Sparsholt College reported Robinson to police and officers arrested her at her home in St Birstan Gardens, Andover.

“I was completely and utterly shocked and devastated,”

she said.

The court heard that Robinson had no previous convictions and earned £38,000 per year at South Downs College.

She said that she took the £24,000 job at Sparsholt College to be nearer home, despite being offered a rise to stay put.

She added that Sparsholt College did not give her an official induction and she did not read the staff handbook.

The 46-year-old denies two counts under the Fraud Act.

Proceeding.