Former sub-postmaster Tony Summerfield admitted pocketing more than £400,000 through false accounting at his post office.

During a ten-minute hearing at Bicester Magistrates' Court, Summerfield, 58, of the Post Office, Kirtlington, pleaded guilty to falsifying customers' Girobank deposits between March 1992 and March 1998.

Juliet McFarlane, representing The Post Office, said it was a breach of trust by Summerfield which was uncovered when an audit carried out at Kirtlington sub-post office in April showed a total of £413,352 had gone missing.

When contacted after the hearing, a Post Office spokesman said: "Mr Summerfield was suspended from the Post Office during the investigation and also during the subsequent court case."

Summerfield worked at the sub-post office for ten years and was previously a manager with the Trustee Savings Bank in Reading.

Magistrates agreed to release him on bail so that pre-sentence reports could be compiled before he appears at Crown Court for sentencing.

The date and venue have not yet been fixed.

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