An assistant bank manager who stole nearly £90,000 from elderly customer's accounts to pay off gambling debts has been jailed for 12 months.

Lynne Harvey, 53, is the second member of staff at the Alliance and Leicester, in Western Road, Brighton, to go to prison for stealing to feed a gambling addiction.

Manager Cathy Otero, 57, of The Parks, Portslade, was jailed for 27 months in June last year for stealing £259,000 from customers.

A third colleague, cashier Ruth Dale, 49, of Cecil Road, Lancing, was given a suspended prison by magistrates last year after she admitted stealing £11,300.

Harvey, of Rudyard Close, Woodingdean, who has no previous convictions, admitted 13 charges of theft.

Alex Tatten-Bennett, prosecuting, told Brighton Crown Court Harvey, who worked for the bank for 20 years, stole the money from nine accounts between June 2005 and October 2007.

Her victims were mainly elderly customers, some living in nursing homes, who rarely used their accounts.

One of the customers she targeted was a woman who died in 2007 aged 103. Harvey withdrew £1,800 from her account.

The largest amount she stole from a customer was £37,300 between May and October 2007.

Harvey was caught along with the other two women after the bank launched an investigation in late 2007 after receiving complaints from customers about money being withdrawn from their accounts.

The court was told Harvey was sacked from her job by the bank, which has paid back the money to its customers.

Jose Olivares-Chandler, defending, said Harvey turned to stealing as her gambling debts spiralled.

He said in the last 15 years she got further in debt after gambling at bingo, casinos and on-line betting and still has £4,000 to pay off.

He said: "Her husband didn't even know the extent of her financial difficulties until she was charged with these offences."

He said Harvey felt remorse and regretted her actions.

Judge Paul Tain told Harvey: "This is very serious offending in breach of a high degree of trust. Clearly you were expected not to be doing that sort of thing, but helping your customers."