A WOMAN who fleeced £24,000 from a charity she was working for to fund her son's drug habit has been given a suspended jail term.

Tracey Pearson, 46, of Gaveston Road, Didcot, stole thousands from Changing Lives, an organisation based in Didcot which donates money to local individuals and causes.

She was taken on to do the book-keeping in June 2014 but just two months later began siphoning cash from the charity using its bank card.

It was only a year later, after Pearson had taken thousands, that it was discovered and she was arrested.

Judge Peter Ross branded her actions 'despicable' and said: "It is bad enough stealing it and depriving a charity by limiting the work they can do but you were in an position of trust and you plundered the charity to deal with your son's need for money for drugs.

"Your counsel has tried to prevent this from being in open court but I will not.

"I am sorry but parents need to say no to their children and if children are threatening then go to the police because what they are doing is a criminal offence by possessing drugs."

Family and staff members from the charity filed into Oxford Crown Court and watched Pearson walk past on her crutches and into the dock.

Jane Brady, defending, said personal problems had led to Pearson committing the offence.

She said: "She and her daughter were so adamant with what they were telling me and showed me some evidence of a long standing problem at home.

"I am not going to go into detail in open court."

But the family and staff at Changing Lives could not hide their disappointment when Judge Ross handed Pearson a 15 month jail sentence suspended for two years, given an electronically tagged curfew for four months and ordered to undergo supervision with the probation service for nine months.

Judge Ross also ordered Pearson to pay back the full amount she stole.

He added: "I am a judge who keeps his promises and my promise to you is that if you breach your curfew and you do not keep up your repayments, then to custody you will go."

After the hearing Val Prior, owner of the charity in Broadway, said "justice had not been done".

She said: "The charity is my baby and we feel devastated she wasn't handed a custodial sentence.

"That would have been the only justice for me, because she didn't just steal from me she stole from the public.

"We had a little girl with leukaemia come in who wanted two new wigs and Wantage Hospital came to us for help - it is these people she has stolen from."