A teenage shopworker went on a £2,000 spending spree after becoming ‘addicted’ to putting false refund transactions onto gift cards.

Leona Brown, of Ripon Road, Oswaldtwistle, would ‘mark up’ items at the Next store at Blackburn Townsmoor Shopping Park where she worked ‘as if it had been returned to the store without a receipt’ and then refund the gift card to herself.

Blackburn Magistrates Court heard how the 19-year-old would then spend the gift cards at different Next stores, including its branches in Blackburn town centre and Bolton.

Her spending spree included clothes and homeware for her bedroom.

Brown pleaded guilty to theft and was given a 12-month community order, ordered to carry out 100 hours unpaid work and pay compensation of £2,000.

Katherine Allan, prosecuting, told the court how Brown was rumbled after the Next regional loss prevention officer noticed a ‘large amount of gift cards were being purchased with refunds’.

The court heard how checks were carried out and revealed Brown had been stealing from the company from May 2013 to March 2014.

Miss Allan said: “What she would do is mark up something as if it had been returned to the store without a receipt and refund a gift card to herself.

"There was no actual transaction taking place and she would spend those cards on herself at different Next stores.”

Miss Allan said Brown started committing the offence when she was 17 and told the police ‘she didn’t know why she had done it’.

Miss Allan said: “She has now lost her good character and got dishonesty on her record. It is a serious offence.”

Paul Huxley, defending, said Brown came across the idea ‘totally by accident’ and then ‘very foolishly started using this way of refunding items’.

He said: “This started happening and she got stuck doing it. She got addicted to doing it and she fully accepts this is something she shouldn’t have done.

"She accepts it was very foolish and immature. Her mum is devastated that her daughter is in court.

“She has held her hands up. She is not a greedy little girl trying to get as much as she can.

“It’s very foolish and child-like and it’s forced her to grow up incredible quick.”

Mr Huxley said Brown felt a ‘huge weight off her shoulders’ after the authorities found out.