A JUDGE has spared a mum from prison, despite her stealing more than £30,000 from her employers, because he did not want to send her children into care.

Judge Gary Burrell QC took pity on office administrator Louise Humby, who fleeced the company by falsely claiming expenses on a company credit card, telling her: “Your children have saved you.”

Minutes earlier she had openly wept and begged him not to send her to jail, after admitting ten counts of fraud.

Humby, 31, helped herself to the money and had an element of “thrill and excitement”

but is now filing for bankruptcy and will not be able to repay any of the money she stole, a court heard.

See today's Daily Echo for the full story