A 'DISGRUNTLED' kennel worker who stole £2,290 from an underwear drawer of his Cononley employer has been handed a suspended prison sentence.

Matthew Simpson, 31, was caught 'red-handed' after the owner of Metadale Kennels and Cattery became suspicious and installed CCTV in her elderly mother's upstairs bedroom, where the cash was hidden.

Simpson admitted burglary between August and November 15 last year, but 'on a basis' that he had taken no more than £100, £60 of which he had handed back on the day he was found out.

Kennels owner, Suzanne Bilgin, told the Newton Hearing at Skipton Magistrates' Court she had been 'devastated' to discover her employee of 11 years had taken the money.

Her elderly mother had also been horrified that someone had been looking in her underwear drawer, she told the court.

Magistrates told Simpson, a married father of three, he had admitted being a disgruntled employee, that he had motive and opportunity, because of his then financial problems, and found him guilty of stealing the entire amount.

In addition to a 16 week prison sentence, suspended for 18 months, he will have to carry out 150 hours unpaid work, complete 30 rehabilitation activity requirement days, and pay £2,230 compensation to Mrs Bilgin.

Mrs Bilgin told the court that cash and cheques were kept in tins downstairs before being moved in bundles of £100 and £1,000 to be stored in two wallets in her mother's upstairs room - where Simpson and weekend staff were not allowed.

She said both she and her mother had become concerned about the possibility of money going missing from around August last year. She installed CCTV on the advice of police after returning from holiday in Turkey in October last year to find £1,930 missing from a bundle of £4,000, that she had checked several times, left in a wallet in the drawer.

About a week later, she had been forced to leave Simpson in the property alone for about an hour and returned to find £60 missing from two wallets in the drawer.

"I looked at the CCTV and was devastated, it was Matthew as clear as anything," she said.

She called the police and when asked, Simpson handed the £60 he had taken that day back to her - including a new £10 note Mrs Bilgin had earlier received from a customer.

Simpson, of Harper Grove, Sutton-in-Craven,

said he had taken the cash because he had been short of money, his wife had been unwell at the time and he needed it to feed their children. He accepted he had acted stupidly but felt he had been treated unfairly by his employer and had come across the money while 'nosying about'.

In mitigation, Peter Minnikin said Simpson had immediately lost his job at the kennels, but was currently on a training scheme with the hope of finding new employment.