A DEPRESSED barman faces jail after admitting he stole almost £2,000 he was asked to bank from the social club where he worked.

Twenty-two-year-old Gavin Jenkins took £1,920 from St George's Social Club in Radford Avenue, Kidderminster, between August 19 and 28 last year, town magistrates heard.

Jenkins, who pleaded guilty to theft, could be sent to jail when he is sentenced next month.

Owen Beale, prosecuting, said Jenkins should have paid the money into the club's bank account but instead deposited it in his own account in September.

He added Jenkins had repeatedly denied stealing the cash to police.

In mitigation John Rogers said his client was "being paid quite a low wage from the club" and fell heavily in debt.

He went on: "He had every intention of paying that money in but the temptation was to take a tenner here and a tenner there.

"It snowballed and snowballed until there was no prospect of ever replacing the money so at that stage he decided to spend the whole lot."

Mr Rogers added Jenkins, of Wassell Drive, Bewdley, had seen a psychiatrist at Kidderminster Hospital for depression.

"It's a question of life getting on top of him a little bit. This seemed to be a little way out of it," he said.