A FORMER pub worker has been given a community sentence after conning people with a story about her fictitious daughter dying from leukaemia.

Katie Wolff, aged 20, of Claremont Close, Orpington, must do 180 hours of unpaid work within the next 12 months.

Wolff was also told to pay £558 in compensation when she was sentenced on Friday (May 7).

Bromley Magistrates’ Court previously heard how Wolff initially told her employers at the George and Dragon in Downe High Street she was unable to come to work as her daughter had broken her leg.

She later returned to work and said her daughter had been diagnosed with leukaemia, before subsequently breaking the news that her little girl had died.

Magistrates were told the pub then organised a charity event to pay for the funeral and two customers even shaved their beards off to help raise cash.

However, the court heard Wolff aroused suspicion when she said her dead daughter’s headstone had been vandalised.

The pub landlord realised a headstone would not be put up so soon after a funeral.

It was then discovered Wolff never had a child in the first place.

Wolff pleaded guilty to one charge of fraud by false representation to the value of £558.