A child in a as she ran credit card

When arrested, she told officers she had a “Girl Friday” role at work and accepted secretly using her own company credit card, and that of the CEO, for her own personal use.

She said: “I was like a kid in a candy shop, it just became too tempting.”

Sander claimed she never told the society she had previous convictions because she was never asked if she had any.

In 1984 she was prosecuted for a dishonesty offence and using “a false instrument” and in 1998 she was given a 12-month suspended sentence for theft from an employer, the court heard.

That suspended sentence was activated the following year, when she committed further thefts as an employee, and was jailed for a total of 15 months.

In 2006 she was given a community order for stealing from an employer.

In July 2014 she was jailed for two years for defrauding Leicester University out of £30,000.

Miss Bradley said the British Psychological Society received an insurance settlement relating to the frauds, but was still £23,338 short.

WHAT HER LAWYER SAID

Nicola Patten, mitigating, said: “She fully and frankly admits the offending and hasn’t sought to diminish the impact it has had on the charity and those employed by the charity.

“It was an abuse of her position of responsibility and she has to accept she has a number of previous convictions that don’t put her in the best light.”

Ms Patten said Sander resorted to dishonesty when under stress.

She found the assistant’s job “demanding” and, at the time, grieving the death of an uncle to whom was very close, the barrister said.

Sander has since engaged in 18 “cognitive behavioural therapy” sessions to try to address her offending, the court was told.

The court heard Sander, a qualified nurse, had been doing voluntary NHS work in the interim, without financial responsibility, but gave that up and was on of Universal Credit - but she still wished to repay the money she stole.

Sander was described as a carer for her 78-yearold partner and the main breadwinner.

Following the sentencing hearing, Leicestershire Police refused a request from Mercury for a “custody picture” - or mugshot - of Sander. According to its website, the British Psychological Society is “a registered charity which acts as the representative body for psychology and psychologists in the UK, and is responsible for the promotion of excellence and ethical practice in the science, education, and application of the discipline.”

A spokesperson for the society said: “We are clear that there are important lessons for us to learn from what happened and we have now implemented a range of strict new measures to prevent a recurrence.

“This was a gross abuse of trust by a serial offender who managed to evade the checks we had in place.”

This was a gross abuse of trust by a serial offender who managed to evade the checks we had in place

Charity