A cash-strapped man plundered pension payments of more than £23,000 from his deceased aunt's bank account.

Carlisle Crown Court heard how Alan James Brown's criminal conduct "snowballed" during a period spanning almost three years amid "financial difficulties".

Brown, 45, admitted stealing £23,331.34, belonging to NHS Pensions.

Tim Evans, prosecuting, told the court how the defendant's aunt, Joyce Brown, had passed away on February 17 2009.

Regular sums of just over £600 kept being paid into her bank account until mid-December 2011 when NHS Pensions realised she had died.

Representatives of the provider appeared to have been kept in the dark while Brown informed others of her death.

He was the sole signatory on her bank account, and had not tried to "perpetrate" the theft, the court heard. But Mr Evans said: "He would withdraw (money), generally on a weekly basis, from a cash machine in Workington."

Brown made a "full and frank" confession after voluntarily attending a police station.

"He said he was in financial difficulties," said Mr Evans. "It had, in his own words, snowballed. So much money came out that he couldn't pay it back. He didn't know what to do."

Brown was said to have told police: "I know what I have done is absolutely wrong. I am not denying it in any shape or form."

Had there been a way of putting the money back, he stressed, he would have done.

Greg Hoare, defending, said Sellafield worker Brown - a man with no previous convictions - had committed a "horrible lapse".

Mr Hoare stated: "He feels a very significant degree of guilt."

Brown, of West Croft, Seaton, had an eight-month prison sentence suspended for 18 months by Recorder Nicholas Clarke QC.

He must complete 200 hours' unpaid work, and was given a four-month night-time curfew.

Brown was said to be have been making modest repayments to NHS Pensions. However, these were almost doubled, to £400 per month - for the next two years - by the judge after he heard detailed information about the defendant's finances.

Recorder Clarke stated NHS Pensions could, at the end of that period, then pursue Brown for the remainder of the money. And he added: "I hope that they do so."