A COUPLE have been ordered to pay back £61,400 they swiped from a faulty cash machine.

Darren and Joanne Jones, of Macgregor Drive, Wickford, appeared at Basildon Crown Court for a proceeds of crime hearing, where they were ordered to pay back cash they stole from a HSBC cash machine in Billericay.

The couple pleaded guilty to theft from the cash machine at the Waitrose store in the High Street last year.

The pair argued the amount should have been reduced and the amount should have been split, based on the items they had purchased seperately.

But Judge Jonathan Black ruled the couple should pay back the full amount, which should be split between them equally.

Mr and Mrs Jones took the money from the cash machine over a period of 88 days from March 2008, after discovering the machine did not record transactions from accounts with an unauthorised overdraft.

They withdrew between £50 and £300 a time from two accounts.

They spent £9,000 on a Chrysler Crossfire car, as well as sums on a laptop and a holiday to Ibiza.

Essex Police found £27,340 in a safe at their home, but did not realise this had also been taken from the cash machine and it was forfeited before HSBC claimed the money.

However, the judge ordered this amount should also be paid back.

Darren Jones, 33, a builder, who earned £25,000, and Joanne Jones, 29, who was sacked from her £40,000 a year investment bank job after pleading guilty to theft, both received nine month suspended prison sentences in April last year.