A STRESSED-OUT tutor went missing from a training agency and took with him office equipment worth more than £4,500, a jury was told.

Burnley Crown Court heard that Bernard McWilliams, 34, who had sent his boss two letters saying he was emotionally unstable, suffering guilt over his sister's death and was apparently having a breakdown. He later admitted to a colleague he had taken the property belonging to North Lancashire Training Group Ltd but told police he never said it.

McWilliams, of Bloomfield Place, Blackburn, denies theft of the projector, a desk-top presenter and a laptop computer from the group's premises in Accrington.

The court heard the group was a government agency which provided youth and adult training programmes. The defendant was then a training officer and IT tutor.

Roger Green, prosecuting, said new computer equipment had been installed and the defendant suggested for security reasons the room where it was kept be locked. He had one key, his boss another and the third was kept in a safe under the supervision of the receptionist.

The defendant was arrested in Cornwall and denied stealing the equipment.

(Proceeding)