A “LOYAL and hardworking” estate agent who stole more than £21,000 from her bosses after racking up huge debts with payday loan companies walked free from court.

Tracey Skeels, of Imperial Avenue, Westcliff, spent two years taking leftover cash from tenant’s deposits while working as a property manager for Bairstow Eves, in Billericay High Street.

Basildon Crown Court heard the 59-year-old transferred money into her own account, but was wracked with guilt and confessed to the scam in November.

Charlotte Davison, prosecuting, said: “It appears that nothing untoward was suspected until Mrs Skeels emailed her line manager to confess. It was quite a short email.”

The court heard the email said: “Dear Sue, I don’t know where to start really. All I can say is I have been taking money from the company for the last two years. I am so ashamed but I am glad it’s all out in the open.”

Instead of waiting for a reply, Skeels walked out of the office - leaving a pile of bank paperwork on her desk.

She had marked the paperwork with highlighters to show where the fraudulent transactions had taken place.

Laureen Hussain, mitigating, said Skeels was “shocked” when bosses worked out the full total of her scam was £21,394.

She told the court that Skeels started stealing after building up more than £10,000 worth of debt with Wonga and Lending Street.

She said: “She was in huge debt. The interest was so high that every time you try to pay one off it just gets worse.

“Her debt was £10,000 and she was simply trying to pay it back, but it never happened. It isn’t an excuse, it’s an explanation.”

Skeels talked her employers through the thefts during two disciplinary hearings, confessed to police and admitted the single charge of theft when she appeared at Southend Magistrates’ court last month.

Miss Hussain said: “She couldn’t take it anymore. She didn’t want to lie about those funds.

“She walked out, she couldn’t face any of the people that she was working with.

“She was absolutely mortified and wanted to come clean.”

The “unsophisticated” fraud was carried out using funds from tenant’s lost deposits or admin fees.

Even though there are strict rules about how those funds should be handled, the company had a policy of transferring them to other parts of the business when they were available.

This allowed Skeels to create fraudulent invoices from companies for work on properties that had not been done.

The money was then paid into her account.

Sentencing her to eight months in prison, suspended for 18 months, Judge Ian Graham said: “I accept you got into this by getting into debt with payday loans.

“This is rather different from past cases in that you made a full confession to your employers and the police.”

Skeels must also complete 200 hours of unpaid work.