A mother of three stole almost £9000 intended for grieving youngsters to fund her gambling habit.

Deborah Gallagher faked invoices for events that never took place while she worked for children's charity Crocus Group at Raigmore Hospital.

Gallagher, 53, of Caledonian Road, Inverness, admitted the dishonesty offence at the city's sheriff court.

It was one generous fundraiser who led to Gallagher being found out after almost two years of banking £8824.49 of the charity's money into her own account between April 2013 and November 2015.

Fiscal depute Stewart MacIver told the court: "In late 2014, a man who had made a previous donation to the charity made a further one.

"He had earlier been given bank details by Gallagher and asked her for confirmation that the charity's information was still correct. But he had been given her own bank details and the funds were placed in her account.

"He had previously raised £1250 and had raised another £903. But when he posted on Facebook about the donations, the group's secretary responded to him, checked and discovered the funds were not there.

"She then ascertained that the bank details given to him belonged to Gallagher. The charity's committee met and the matter was reported to the police.

"Further enquiries revealed there were a number of false invoices. One for £1195 for a Bereavement Awareness Day, which Gallagher said she paid out of her own funds and was reclaiming the money.

"Another was for a day's coach trip, which the company said never happened. There was also a transaction for almost £4000 for Loch Insh Watersports which the company confirmed was false."

Defence lawyer Marc Dickson said: "At the time, her father suffered ill health and she nursed him. As a coping mechanism, she developed an addiction to online gambling.

"She realises her behaviour was reprehensible and that she betrayed a position of trust. She bitterly regrets that and wants to pay back the money."

Sheriff Gordon Fleetwood demanded to know what action she had taken to reimburse the charity since she was charged almost six months ago.

He said: "In this court we hear that people are full of good intentions but when it comes down to it, these intentions are never fulfilled."

Mr Dickson said his client earned £1400 a month and was prepared to pay the charity £500 a month.

Sheriff Fleetwood deferred sentence for six months for Gallagher to be of good behaviour and to make £3000 of repayment to the charity. Her next court date will be on October 27.

Group chairman Eric Butlin said afterwards: "We were all let down very badly by Debbie who had worked for us since 2002. She was a trusted member of staff and we are very disappointed by what she did.

"Now we want the money back. It was funds we didn't know we had and they could have been used for the children.

"We have always lived within our means so the charity was able to continue because we worked to our budget. But we have a new service manager and new premises and if we get this money back, it will be a tremendous help.

"Obviously we depend a lot on donations from the public."