A woman has been jailed for six months after stealing from her City employer to repay her boyfriend’s credit card debts.

Yinka Saunders, aged 24, faked a colleague’s signature to siphon funds from PriceWaterhouseCoopers as she felt under pressure to help her boyfriend who had debts amounting to £40,000.

Michael Mulkerrins, prosecuting, said: "She was in a relationship and had taken on debts she couldn’t service, and so commenced a spate of periodic minor thefts from her employer," London’s Evening Standard reports.

According to research from Fairinvestmentco.uk, debt can cause "stress, anxiety and even depression".

It warns those with problem debt to face up to their problems as soon as possible to avoid them worsening.

One possible route out of debt and an alternative to bankruptcy is an individual voluntary arrangement, where the debtor repays a certain affordable sum each month for a set period of time.

Following that period, any remaining amount owed is written off.