A MAN handed himself in to police after stealing £8,000 to fund a gambling addiction.

David Robinson, who worked at the Hop Pole Hotel in Main Street, Ollerton, squandered the hotel's takings on a string of failed bets.

At Nottingham Crown Court he was sentenced for stealing the cash from his employer.

Judge Dudley Bennett gave the 47-year-old, of Newlands Drive, Forest Town, a 12-month sentence suspended for two years and 100 hours of community work.

"Unusually you told police what you had been up to before they came knocking on the door," he said.

"I accept the explanation as to why you took this money is to do with the fact you had an addiction to gambling. Like all gamblers you lose and think you can repay it."

The judge took into account that Robinson had keep out of trouble in the past.

"I don't make a compensation order because he hasn't got any money. If that should change, the employers can pursue him through the county courts," he said.

Christopher Lowe, prosecuting, said one of Robinson's responsibilities in November last year was for the cash and takings. He had telephoned his employers, claimed he had mislaid some of the cash and that some had been stolen. Then he went sick from work. He handed himself in to police in January.

Judge Bennett said: "I rarely come across people who confess their crimes. He is 47, not in any sort of trouble for a decade and he is a gambler."

Stuart Gosnell, mitigating, said his client would do whatever he could to set the missing money aside.

He said: "He realises he has done wrong. He knows he will have to pay that money back. He is surviving on benefits at the moment."

rebecca.sherdley@nottinghameveningpost.co.uk