A 26-YEAR-OLD man who stole more than £60,000 from his employer has been been jailed for 16 months.

Jamie Jackson was in charge of a student laundry service operated by a subsidiary of Ripponden-based firm JLA Limited, but over the course of a year he carried out more than 500 criminal transactions.

Bradford Crown Court heard today that the company was alerted by PayPal last October and a check on Jackson's computer revealed that he deleted previous emails about the transfers.

Prosecutor Alisha Kaye said Jackson, of Sevenacres, Denholme, had started stealing money in November 2014 and was completing dozens of transactions every month.

Following his arrest last November Jackson admitted what he had been doing and told police he was suffering from depression.

Miss Kaye said Jackson also admitted he was drug and alcohol dependant and was taking money to deal with a gambling addiction.

The court heard that banks accounts held by Jackson had been checked and all the stolen money had been spent.

In total Jackson pocketed £63,661 and last month he pleaded guilty to theft when he appeared magistrates in Halifax.

Jackson will now face a further hearing in May under the Proceeds of Crime Act in an bid to seize any available assets.

Barrister John Dunning, for Jackson, conceded that his client had handled the student laundry account and the offending had clearly been a breach of trust.

He revealed that Jackson's newly-born baby daughter had died after a few hours and that had led to various addictions which he had funded by stealing from his employer.

Judge Jonathan Rose expressed condolences for Jackson's loss and said he accepted that the loss would have affected the defendant greatly.

But he said the death occurred in 2011 and it was three years later when Jackson embarked on his year-long criminal spree.

The judge noted that Jackson had also been given a community order by a court in 2013 for a different offence so he had had experience of the justice system and what it could do.

Judge Rose said the theft offence had been "persistent and devious" and Jackson would have carried on if suspicions hadn't been raised and his computer accessed.

"As it is you obtained a very large amount of money, damaging the company, damaging its profitability and potentially its functionability and potentially harming other employees," the judge told Jackson.

"Those who steal from their employers persistently when they are in a position of trust and to such a high value must lose their liberty and I am afraid it to prison you must go."