A BUILDING society's branch supervisor stole £103,000 from clients' accounts bec-ause she was being blackmailed by a former lover, a court heard.

Vilna Marsden is today beginning an 18 month prison sentence after admitting stealing the money from accounts with the Monmouth branch of the Yorkshire Building Society. Cardiff crown court heard yesterday that Marsden, 61, told police who arrested her she was being blackmailed by a man she once had a relationship with who demanded £5,000 three times a year.

Marsden, a women with no previous convictions of Carbonne Close, Monmouth, admitted three charges of theft, three of false accounting and 13 of forgery.

Prosecutor Glenville Barker said she started work with the Yorkshire in Monmouth in 1989 and became branch supervisor.

She stole the money from three accounts with large credit balances from October 1993 to January 2001.

She was interviewed by the police in May last year after one of her victims, Brynley Lawrence, became suspicious.

She told officers she had been blackmailed by a man who had been taking £15,000 a year since 1994.

She said he had wanted more and more money from her and had threatened to show the building society a letter indicating there were county court judgements against her. She said: "He threatened my life, he could be nasty."

Mr Barker said Marsden had had full access to all aspects of the branch.

She went on several holidays and took out a £10,000 loan to pay off debts and have double-glazing fitted. She also paid sums into accounts for her grandchildren. All the victims, he said, were reimbursed with interest.

In mitigation, Peter Hey-wood described the case as tragic, adding that Mars-den was depressed and full of remorse.

He added: "She didn't have a high lifestyle and she has always maintained she was exploited and blackmailed by this man who exerted great pressure on her."

Judge Michael Gibbon told her: "This was an enormous breach of trust.

"Public confidence in building societies and the handling of money is of the utmost importance.

"When someone in your position is dishonest it destroys confidence."

He said he accepted she was being blackmailed but she should have gone to the police. And he added if she had "thrown herself on the mercy of her employer" she might not have been dismissed.