A teenager working in a bingo club has been jailed after stealing £24,000 from the gaming site to spend on a drug filled trip to Amsterdam.

Liam Knights, 19, was the treasurer at Gala Leisure Ltd. He and Leon Jones, 20, pleaded guilty at the court hearing on May 18th of stealing £24,580 on March 13th.

Judge John Potter added: “You were trusted by your employers to look after the money. You took it simply to lead the high life for a couple of weeks.” And warned that the “hedonistic trip” could lead to a custodial sentence.

Knights was this week sentenced to 15 months’ detention in a young offender institution. Jones was told that he had come “perilously close” to a similar sentence. He was sentenced to nine months detention in a young offender institution, suspended for 18 months, with supervision and 100 hours unpaid work.

Alisha Kaye, prosecution, claimed that Knights was seen on CCTV writing a note apologising for the theft. She also suggested that the two had stolen the money for a trip to Amsterdam where they spent the money on hotels and cannabis.

Jones and Knights were arrested at the airport when they returned from their trip.

Acting for Knights, Jayne Beckett claimed it was “an unbelievably stupid jaunt”. The two men were of good character and had hoped to join the Army. They had tried to hand themselves in at a Dutch police station but were told not to waste their time.

Mrs Beckett added “It will be a great shame if he is locked up,”

Acting for Jones, Abigail Langford, claimed: “He realised very quickly the enormity of what he had done, hence the attempts by him and Mr Knights to hand themselves in.”

“He is more than aware that custody is a very real possibility and is very fearful.”

In support of the sentences the Recorder added: “Both your counsel indicate that this offence has elements of farce about it, well you may think that, but £24,000 is an awful lot of money, more than most people in this country earn in a year, and in two weeks you had blown the lot.”