Private Investigator Training

A FORMER volunteer stole more than $65,000 from a hospital auxiliary to help make ends meet.

Christine Norris, of Burnie, will be sentenced in the Supreme Court in Burnie on Wednesday.

Between 2004 and 2008, Mrs Norris, 54 , was treasurer of the North-West Regional Hospital kiosk auxiliary which raises funds to buy equipment for the Burnie health facility.

A new treasurer was elected last year and account discrepancies were noted. A full audit of the auxiliary's books was then conducted.

Mrs Norris was arrested and later admitted to failing to bank money on 147 individual occasions.

Her defence counsel Natalie Everett said the Norris family income had halved after Christine's husband was retrenched from a Tasmanian mine in 2006.

"She is incredibly embarrassed she resorted to stealing to cope financially," Ms Everett told Justice Shan Tennent.