A FORMER soldier who stole tens of thousands of pounds worth of mobile phones from work has walked free from court.

Gordon Younie plundered 117 handsets over a 21 month period and sold them online at less than half their true value. But after hearing the 57-year-old from Kennington ‘yielded to temptation’ as he was struggling to put two sons through university, a judge imposed a suspended sentence.

Claire Marlow, prosecuting, told Swindon Crown Court that Younie worked as a project manager for telecommunications firm CMS Supatrak, which is based in the town.

Last year she said the firm installed internet tracking software on their system to see what websites their staff were visiting while they were at work.

As a result of the analysis she said it was found that the defendant had an account with Mazuma Mobile, a firm which trades second hand mobile handsets.

They found he had sold them 117 mobiles belonging to CMS Supatrak and they had paid him £10,180.

She said that when the deals were looked into it was discovered that the phones had a value to the company of about £27,000.

Younie, of The Avenue, Kennington, pleaded guilty to charges of theft and fraud between the start of 2009 and October last year.

Judge Douglas Field imposed a 12 month jail term suspended for a year and told him to do 200 hours of community service and pay £2,000 compensation.