A cake maker who used a worker's child maintenance money to prop up the business has been fined more than £5,000.

Barbara Heath, 52, a partner and book-keeper in Buckfastleigh-based Auntie's Handmade Cakes, made 142 weekly deductions from baker Shawn Fell's pay packet for his child support.

But instead of passing it on to the Child Support Agency, it propped up the business for three years. The firm has since closed.

Heath, of Kingston Close, Kingskerswell, was sentenced by Torbay magistrates to 150 hours unpaid work and ordered to pay £4,084 compensation and £300 costs.

She admitted fraud in acting against Mr Fells and dishonestly abusing her position as a partner in the business.

Martin Symonds, prosecutor for the Child Maintenance Enforcement Commission, said Mr Fells owed £8,002.55 to the agency.

But investigations found that only £3,918 had been paid up.