A FORMER finance supervisor ran out of court wearing a motorcycle helmet to shield her identity after admitting stealing £150,000 from her former employer, one of Southampton's biggest firms.

Camera-shy Louise Clarke, 35, had just pleaded guilty to 12 charges of theft, two counts of false accounting and one of attempted theft from British American Tobacco.

After being warned by the judge that she could face a substantial prison sentence, she donned a crash helmet, hurried from Southampton Crown Court and dashed across London Road, where she was picked up by a waiting motorcyclist.

Clarke, of King Edward Avenue, Shirley, had bail extended until sentence in July, when a judge will have pre-sentence and psychiatric reports on her.

Defence barrister Andy Houston revealed that Clarke had been having psychiatric treatment at the Royal South Hants Hospital in Southampton since November.

"The court would be assisted by a psychiatric report," he said.

"This was a large scale theft over a long period of time, and she is aware it will be dealt with severely."

Judge Christopher Leigh QC agreed with the application but warned Clarke that by giving bail she should not think a jail sentence would not be passed.

He added: "If it's me, it will be a custodial sentence of some length because of the amount of money."

The prosecution claims that the dishonesty covers a period from September 2002 - when Clarke first began working for the company - to November 2006, when she had been promoted to finance supervisor.

They say she took cash from one account and put it into two accounts she had created in her own and her daughter's name.

To carry out the scam, she falsified documents, forged her manager's signature and used her colleagues' passwords.

Clarke was arrested in November after company bosses had called in the police when it appeared money was missing from the accounts. She was then released on bail while detectives checked BAT's books.

BAT, the world's second biggest cigarette manufacturer, shut its Regents Park production plant in December after phasing out more than 500 jobs.