Liesel Lound (31), who has resigned from Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, faced two counts of false accounting after admitting she moved £3,332 from the trust's payroll system into her account in 2006.

A supervisor noticed that unusually high payments of arrears had been made to a member of staff and contacted the trust's local counter fraud specialist to look into the matter.

The specialist found that Lound had transferred the money to herself and then changed the bank details in order to cover up the transactions.

Further checks with her bank confirmed that the payments had been received and that they had since been used.

Counter fraud specialist Dawn Pendenque said: "Liesel Lound stole public money that should have been used to help Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust provide care for patients.

"This is completely unacceptable and we hope this conviction will warn potential fraudsters that we will not tolerate the loss of valuable NHS resources for the personal gain of a dishonest minority."

Lound was sentenced to a two-year conditional discharge and ordered to pay £250 in costs at Nottingham Crown Court on Monday.