THE Fenland manager of a Cambridgeshire care home fraudulently used her company credit cards to pay for more than �2,500 worth of personal items.

Melissa Knight was working at The Limes in Littleport when she used the cards to buy her own groceries and petrol over a four-month period, Ely magistrates heard last Thursday.

Knight, 40, of Long Road, Tydd Gote, admitted a charge of fraud by abuse of position. She was given a one-year supervision order and must pay �2,589.26 compensation and �135 costs.

Prosecuting, Marti Blair said Knight was given a company credit card and a company fuel card when she took on her job, but she used both to pay for personal items. The offences were committed between June and October 2010.

He said: “As a result she was called into a meeting; she admitted using the card for doing her food shopping and using the petrol car for her own car.”

Michael Hinchliffe, mitigating, said: “She did not use the cards to pay for luxury items, it was for necessities, it was an extremely difficult time for her.”

Mr Hinchliffe said Knight’s husband had died in November 2009 and she later discovered he had been leading a double life. She had found credit card bills of around �20,000.

“She was concerned she would be unable to pay,” said Mr Hinchliffe. He said Knight’s late husband had paid rent on another property and used credit cards to pay for holidays and gifts. None of it for his wife.

Mr Hinchliffe said: “She had been with him for 18 years but did not realise he had been leading this strange life.

“She concedes that when she started her new position she had mental health problems, she was on anti-depressants and was receiving bereavement counselling.

“She was short of money, she makes no excuses. She has taken this money and does not know why it happened.”