A WOMAN who netted around £20,000 by stealing from a Gwent garden centre and defrauding a property management company, abused positions of trust over a lengthy period of time, a court was told.

Christine Hill, aged 67, of Home Farm Court, Shirenewton, pleaded guilty at Newport Crown Court to a charge of theft from Chepstow Garden Centre between September 29 2008 and May 31 2011.

She had already admitted a second charge, of fraud, between February 1 2008 and August 19 2012, during her time as bookkeeper for the Home Farm Court Management Company.

Hill, who is currently living in Cheltenham as a condition of her bail, will be sentenced on Friday January 16.

She had originally pleaded not guilty to the charge of the theft of £55,033 from Chepstow Garden Centre and had been due to stand trial, but changed her plea on the basis that the amount by which she benefited was significantly less than that mentioned in the charge.

Judge Philip Richards was told by prosecuting counsel Mr Christopher Rees that forensic accountants employed by both the prosecution and the defence had been through the garden centre's books to try to establish how much Hill had stolen.

"The difficulty in assessing how much she stole is that she destroyed till rolls," he said.

"Considerable work has been done by both to assess a baseline figure we can be sure of. That is the figure (of £20,000). That is why there is a discrepancy (with the amount stated in the indictment)."

At an earlier hearing Hill had also pleaded guilty on a basis to the fraud matter involving Home Farm Court Management Company, and Mr Rees said the prosecution accepted the basis of plea for each charge.

"The defendant admitted a substantial fraud occurred in breach of trust over a substantial period of time," he said.

Defence counsel Mr Heath Edwards said Hill "accepts that in total there is £20,000 of theft or fraud perpetrated by her."

Of the Home Farm Court Management Company fraud - which the indictment valued at £16,090 - Mr Edwards said: "We say that sum came to a total of £2,800. The remainder (of the £20,000) relates to that which was stolen from the garden centre."

As a jury had been sworn in before Hill changed her plea on the theft charge, it had to formally record a verdict of guilty, directed by the judge.

Judge Richards adjourned sentencing for a probation report to be compiled, and extended Hill's conditional bail.