A former Pembroke finance officer was jailed for 30 months today after defrauding Pembroke College of almost £300,000 to fund an addiction to online gambling.

Jacqueline Balaam, 41, began employment with the college in January 2009, but her crimes did not begin until June 2012.

She abused her position as a purchase ledger clerk, stealing a total of £285,986 from the college over a period of 18 months by duplicating invoices and changing details to cover her tracks. Meanwhile, she also misappropriated over £3,000 from Girton Social Club between December 2010 and January 2014, where she volunteered as treasurer.

Ms Balaam pleaded guilty in February, and the extent of her gambling addiction emerged today at Cambridge Crown Court, where the court heard that her bets on the online bingo service Jackpotjoy eventually came to a total of £6,383,126. Despite winning up to £15,000 on individual bets, she continually reinvested her wins instead of cashing them in.

Her crimes carried a maximum sentence of ten years' imprisonment; dismissing the possibility of suspending her sentence because of "the sheer scale of what you did and the length of time which you proceeded with it", Judge Gareth Hawkesworth described Ms Balaam as "an intelligent woman" who was "well able to seek help during that period".

In mitigation, her barrister Mark Shelley said: "Her reason for her offending was an illness. It wasn't greed, it was simply gambling and she has taken steps to address her problem." It emerged today that Ms Balaam took an overdose on the day of her arrest, but later recovered in hospital.

Reiterating a statement made at the time of her arrest, a spokesman for Pembroke College said: "Now that the circumstances are not in dispute we would like to express our regret and sadness about this incident, which had miserable human consequences."

"The College's losses were significantly covered by insurance and we are vigorously pursuing the recovery of the remaining losses."

"After an external review, changes have been implemented to our accounting processes so as to prevent such an eventuality occurring again."

No orders were made to retrieve the money, though a proceeds of crime hearing is upcoming and will set the amount of compensation which Ms Balaam will have to pay as part of her sentence.