A bookkeeper who stole £550,000 from a Bury St Edmunds car dealership has been jailed for two years.

Karen Foster of Andrews Walk in the town, pleaded guilty at Ipswich Crown Court to four counts of theft and four of false accounting.

The court heard that in 2004-12 she took cash payments from customers of Ford dealership EMG in Fornham Road, recorded them as debts and kept the money.

She faces further court action in June to recover the money.

The court was told Foster gave herself up to police in December 2012 after company officials became suspicious.

At the time of her arrest, she was being paid about £8 an hour as a bookkeeper and was making repayments on a Range Rover and a Jaguar.

Her defence said it was unclear why official auditors had not spotted the missing money earlier.

At the further court hearing in June, an application will be made to seize assets from Foster to help compensate the dealership