A disgraced former councillor convicted of taking more than £8,000 from a local charity she worked for has avoided jail.

Yvonne Kucuk was instead ordered to carry out 220 hours of unpaid work.

The 52 year-old was the company secretary for the People's Development Trust in Dalmarnock, Glasgow.

The organisation ran the £3.5m Commonweath Games legacy hub in the area launched amid a fanfare by football legend Kenny Dalglish in 2015.

But, later financial concerns lead to auditors looking over its books.

Kucuk – ex-Labour councillor for the city's Calton – and the trust's project manager Wiliam Faulds, 55, were eventually held by police.

Read more: Former Glasgow councillor Yvonne Kucuk convicted of £8000 charity fraud

Faulds was also hit with the same sentence after he was also convicted of embezzlement.

Both Kucuk and Faulds were further handed a restriction of liberty order meaning they must stay at home between 7pm and 7am.

The hub facility housed a range or services – such as IT training and a nursery – creating dozens of jobs.

A trial heard payments had been made to someone called “Johnny the Turk” for apparent literacy services.

This individual has never been tracked down.

Kucuk had also once asked a colleague to return a bag with £2,000 cash inside while she was suspended.

A number of cheque stubs made out to "cash" were discovered - but there were no corresponding receipts or paperwork.

The business had also been described as “chaotic” at one stage as it moved from the city's Bridgeton to the hub at Dalmarnock.

Kucuk was initially put on gardening leave after the audit.

The former councillor and colleague Faulds denied embezzling £8,120 between January 2015 and 2016.

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It also emerged she got Faulds to co-sign blank cheques, which he denied.

She told the court: “I would ask William at the office and complete the rest at the bank.”

Her lawyer Brian Cooney said Kucuk had plans to move to Turkey.

Sheriff Mary McCrory told the pair: “It is unthinkable for someone with financial responsibility for the trust to act this way.

“There is a serious breach of trust at the heart of this embezzlement.”