A JUDGE described a defendant as one of the most dishonest women he had come across for some time.

Judge Christopher Leigh QC said Sarah French had put up a defence in which she had sought to blame someone else and that had been rightly rejected by the jury. Though he extended bail pending sentence on October 13, he warned her that he was considering a jail sentence.

French, 39, of Gosport Lane, Lyndhurst, had been convicted at Southampton Crown Court of obtaining a job as a bar assistant at the Haywain public house in Bartley without disclosing she had previous convictions.

The court heard she worked at the pub for two years before leaving in October 2004 but returned to become assistant manager.

Prosecutor Scott Stemp said that after she had been sacked for gross misconduct in June, her dishonest past came to light.

After she had been found guilty of obtaining a pecuniary advantage by deception, Mr Stemp revealed she had six previous convictions covering 41 offences with more than 250 others taken into consideration. They included theft, forgery, deception and burglary.

French claimed she told the assistant manager about her past but he told her to tick the box on the job application form that she was of previous good character.