A GWENT book keeper who stole £84,000 from his clients - including £27,000 from a friend - was jailed for nine months this evening.

Steven Paul Turzynski, 52, of Commercial Street, Cwmbran, pocketed money which clients thought was being paid to HM Customs and Excise for VAT returns.

Turzynski, who ran Steven Turzynski & Co in Cwmbran, was jailed at Cardiff crown court after he pleaded guilty to eight counts of theft between May 1994 and January 2000 and asking for a further 15 offences to be taken into consideration.

Prosecutor Ieuan Bennett told the court Turzynski told arresting detectives he had been "robbing Peter to pay Paul".

One of his victims was his friend, Andrew Charles Goodwin, who runs the Forge Hammer public house in Risca.

Mr Bennett told the court Turzynski had one previous conviction for forgery in 1990 for which he received a suspended prison sentence.

He said the victims in the current case were pursuing claims against Turzynski in the civil courts.

Stephen Jeary, mitigating, asked Judge Roderick Denyer, QC, to pass a suspended prison sentence because of the time the case had taken to come to court.

Turzynski was first arrested by the police in December 1999 when he made admissions to officers, the court heard. Mr Jeary said his client was a man who was spoken highly of in his character references.

The judge said that delaying the case coming to court after the file was passed from hand to hand was "outrageous".

He said the blame for the delay was "entirely at the door of the state prosecuting authority and the police."

The judge said had the case proceeded in a timely way, sentence would have been one of two to three years in prison.

He said he was taking the delay into account but added that such a "gross breach of trust" deserved a prison sentence.

Outside the court Mr Goodwin said "I am pleased that Turzynski is now behind bars and I am hopeful of recovering the money that was stolen."

Sergeant Ieuan Watkins, the officer in the case, said Turzynski had "caused significant heartache and distress to the victims in this case".