STOLEN cheques to the value of £5,500 were paid into a woman's account at five separate banks.

But staff at Lloyds TSB in Worcester became suspicious when Surbajeet Randhawa went into the branch to withdraw money.

They alerted police and she was arrested, Worcester Crown Court heard.

Randhawa, aged 24, of Ombersley Road, Worcester, pleaded guilty to money laundering and shoplifting.

Judge Toby Hooper QC said she was at the top of "a slippery slope" of crime due to a troubled background which had blurred her judgement.

He gave her a nine-month jail sentence, suspended for 12 months, and made an 18-month supervision order by the probation service.

The judge said the defendant was foolish and naive but he hoped she could now break her cycle of petty dishonesty.

Prosecutor Andrew Tucker said Randhawa opened a bank account in Stratford-on-Avon on August 22 last year.

A month later five cheques were paid in at separate branches in London. She went into the Worcester branch to check her balance and planned to withdraw £1,000.

Randhawa told police she had agreed to help "a friend of a friend" who had no bank account by allowing him pay cheques into her account.

She claimed she was taken to London by two men and then met a woman who paid the cheques in.

She also breached a conditional discharge by going into Boots in Worcester and stealing baby items worth £20.

James Dunstan, defending, said she had been preyed on by people who exploited her.