A BEAVER leader who stole cash from the group before lying to police about being robbed at knifepoint has avoided prison.

Anne Marie Lambert stole around £200 from the Rossendale Beavers in Stacksteads on January 31 last year, Burnley Crown Court heard.

But just hours after stealing the money, Lambert went to police to make a false statement about how she had been robbed at knifepoint, using this as an excuse to keep the cash.

But her plan was foiled shortly after when officers investigating the case reviewed CCTV and found that she had never been on Wardle Street in Bacup, where she claimed the attack took place.

A visit to her home revealed that Lambert was in a difficult financial situation, adding weight to officers’ beliefs that she had made a false statement.

Prosecutor Charlotte Kenny said: “The facts of the case are simple in that Mrs Lambert reported to police that she had been robbed at knifepoint.

“She told police that she had been walking down the hill on Wardle Street carrying a rucksack on her back and a plastic bag in her hand. The next thing she knew she felt a heavy tugging.”

Lambert then told police that she was aware of a large shiny item in front of her face, and then on her neck. She then claimed to have handed her backpack, which contained a tin with January’s subscription fees in, over to the robber.

But the truth, Judge Jonathon Gibson said, was that Mrs Lambert was struggling with her finances and had made the whole thing up in a bid to pocket some cash.

Appearing during sentencing, the 42-year-old’s defence barrister Mark Stewart said: “She has led, not only a law-abiding life, but a positively good life, in that she not only works and is a mother and wife, but she has spent a lot of time in the volunteering sector despite her medical difficulties.”

Mr Stewart said Mrs Lambert had always been the bread-winner in her home until recently when she lost her job at the Co-op.

It was at this point that the bills started stacking up and the family were at risk of losing their home. He added the only reason she had taken the money was to ‘keep herself afloat’.

Lambert, of Cutler Lane, Bacup, previously pleaded guilty at Preston Crown Court to two charges, theft and preventing the course of justice.

She was issued a 12-month suspended sentence and ordered to pay back the Beavers group £200.