THE manager of a Watford bank who stole more than £19,000 from customers' accounts to spend on cocaine and gambling has escaped with a suspended prison sentence.

Timothy Goodall, 28, performed a variety of sophisticated fiddles at the HFS Bank in The Parade, where he was acting manager, between January 2004 and July 2005.

St Albans Crown Court, where he appeared for sentencing on Thursday, heard the frauds were discovered after a customer complained about a loan taken out in her name with a forged signature.

Goodall, who had already left the bank, a subsidiary of HSBC, swiftly confessed to its investigators and police, soon pleading guilty to seven counts of dishonesty and asking for 15 others to be taken into consideration.

His stealing was motivated by a £100-per-week cocaine habit, and he also had a gambling addiction.

He told police his wife, into whose account he was putting the funds to avoid suspicion, was completely unaware of what he was doing.

Defending, Charles Judge pleaded for Goodall, who has two young children, to be spared prison. He said his client had beaten his drug and gambling habits, and got another job in telesales.

Goodall has offered the bank, which has repaid its customers, £140 a month to cover its loss, planning to repay the rest by remortgaging his home in Fairfield Crescent, Stevenage as it rises in value.

Mr Judge said: "Were he to lose his liberty, his family would lose their house."

The judge, recorder Lindblom QC, agreed, and told Goodall he would suspend the 51-week prison sentence, provided he committed no further offences.

He ordered him to do 250 hours community service, and observe a curfew, keeping him at home between 8pm and 6am for three months.