A former Shropshire medical practice manager convicted of swindling nearly £40,000 from her employers has been spared jail after lying about her criminal past to land another NHS job.

Brenda Ward was sentenced to 150 hours of unpaid work at Birmingham Crown Court yesterday.

She had deliberately failed to mention she was given a suspended jail term for overpaying herself while in charge at Wem and Prees Medical Centre when she applied for the same position at a surgery in the city.

The 55-year-old, formerly of High Street, Albrighton, but now of Sutton Coldfield, got the £29,000-a-year job at the First Care GP Practice in Balsall Heath in March last year. But she was suspended in October and sacked a week later after an NHS investigation uncovered her criminal past.

Ward, who still visits Shr- opshire to see her mother, admitted fraud by failing to declare criminal convictions.

She had been given a 36-week jail term, suspend- ed for two years, in June last year, but because the latest offence had been committed before the sentence was imposed Mr Recorder Ciaran Rankin ruled she was not in breach of it.

Passing sentence yesterday he said: “You are a hard working, intelligent and articulate lady but you are fundamentally dishonest.”

Rhydian James, prosecuting, said forms, which would have checked for criminal convictions, were deliberately not returned to the authorities by Ward.

Janjeev Sharma, for Ward, said she hit “brick wall after brick wall” in attempts to find a job when she declared her convictions.