A solicitors' clerk paid off £4,000 of customers' debt with cash taken from other clients, a misconduct hearing was told.

Elizabeth Gough pretended she had recovered the money owed to the clients in court judgements.

In one case Gough paid out £1,886 and in another £2,000 was sent to clients using other customers' money, the Solicitors' Disciplinary Tribunal in London heard yesterday.

Bosses at Blake Lapthorn Linnell, in West Way, Botley, Oxford, put her on extended leave in January 2004 when they discovered there was a problem. Within days Gough resigned, saying in a letter: "I apologise for the embarrassment I have caused to both the department and the firm."

Stephen Battersby, for the Law Society, said: "Having been employed as a clerk she had misused one client's monies to deal with the affairs of other clients. It was done by her in an attempt to cover up the fact she had not done what she ought to have done in order to make recoveries of debts for clients."

Gough, of The Camelias, Banbury, did not attend the hearing.

The tribunal imposed a section 43 order, which means that no law firm can employ Gough without permission from the Law Society. She was also ordered to pay costs of £1,221.30.