A company accountant who cost the jobs of nine people by swindling £150,000 to fund his drinking and gambling, has been jailed for two years.

William Erskine, 47, left his bosses at Bewick Engineering facing financial ruin after pilfering the cash over a six-year period by forging cheques.

Newcastle Crown Court heard that nine members of the firm's 22 staff lost their job as a result.

The Tyneside company, which works in conjunction with 30 others nationwide, is now flourishing after employing a new accountant.

Erskine, of Church View, Boldon Colliery, South Tyneside, was a "highly respectable" accountant when he started working for the firm in 1994.

But in 1999, it was discovered that the accountant had taken £40,000 from company funds. His bosses allowed him to pay the money back and he re-mortgaged his house and took out an overdraft to settle the debt.

Michael Hodson, prosecuting, told the court: "He admitted writing cheques to himself and falsifying the stubbs."

Erskine clocked up his second conviction for drink-driving that year and, by February of last year, more cash flow problems were discovered within the firm.

Erskine admitted the whole deception to police. He admitted he had been drinking heavily and had a serious gambling problem.

Erskine pleaded guilty to theft of £153,000 from the firm, false accounting between January 1 1994 to June 2000 and a number of forgeries of cheque signatures.