A CHURCH treasurer who stole over £140,000 from organisations she volunteered for after amassing huge, secret debts killed herself when the theft was found out, an inquest heard.

Jill Gover, 54, was a respected and trusted member of her local community, serving as a church warden, book keeper for the village hall and a trustee for a wealthy colleague's trust fund.

But she racked up debts of £225,000 that included a £112,000 mortgage on a Grade II-listed country cottage, £38,000 for two BMW cars, three bank loans of £50,000, five maxed-out credit cards totalling £21,000 and a £5,700 clothes catalogue bill.

She kept most of those debts hidden from husband Martin.

The hearing heard Mrs Gover siphoned off £50,466 from the coffers of 14th century Holy Rood Church in Wool.

She made numerous church cheques out to herself after forging the second signatory.

Her deceit started to unravel after a cheque of £20,000 from the church to the Diocese of Salisbury bounced due to a lack of funds in its bank account.

Two days before she hanged herself on March 31 last year, Mrs Gover was called to a meeting with vicar Rhona Floate to discuss the discrepancies.

Mrs Gover's body was found by her husband in the woodshed on the grounds of their home in the hamlet of Moreton.

A police investigation revealed she had been "misappropriating" church funds since 2008.

Inquiries showed Mrs Gover had stolen at least £3,000 from the accounts of East Burton village hall in Wool which she was also a treasurer for between January 2013 and March 2014.

She had also stolen £91,200 from the recipients of a trust fund she had worked as a book-keeper for.

Police said she wrote fraudulent letters to Scottish Widows requesting sums from the trust account; five separate payments of between £5,000 and £30,000 over a seven-month period in 2012 to 2013 and then a final withdrawal of £1,200 in July 2013.

She had also agreed a loan from the trust of £150,000 in 2010, which she would pay back over a 10-year period, but the hearing was told the majority of this remained unpaid.

Her husband said: "I was completely unaware of what was going on and there's still bits and pieces we have been told today that have shocked me immensely. I'm lost for words.

"She was a wonderful, caring person."

Deputy coroner Brendan Allen said he believed Mrs Gover intended to kill herself and recorded a verdict of suicide at the Bournemouth inquest.