A FAILED asylum seeker who pocketed thousands of pounds which had been illicitly put into his bank account has walked free from court.

Mustafa Timur was put on a suspended sentence after a judge was told that he was now in work and had leave to stay in the country.

And the 27-year-old was also ordered to repay more than £5,000 at £100 a week from his kebab shop earnings.

Timur agreed to launder the money, which had been plundered from someone else's account in June last year.

After checking the cash had arrived he converted it into euros at the American Express bureau at the Lakeside shopping centre in Essex.

But he was caught when the victim noticed the money missing from her account and bank officials tracked it to Timur.

He told police that he had given his bank details to his brother when he was short of funds and the money just appeared, Swindon Crown Court heard.

He said he had bought the euros because the pound was fluctuating against the currency and then used the money to pay off bills and decorate his house.

Timur, of Ramsbury Avenue, Penhill, pleaded guilty to a charge of possessing criminal property.

He was accused of keeping £9,000 which he knew or suspected was the proceeds of criminal conduct but pleaded guilty on the basis the total he had was only £5,274.26.

The court heard Timur had applied for asylum after arriving in the UK but it was refused, as were his appeals against the decision in 2005 and the following year.

He was removed from the country in July 2006 to Cyprus but then applied for and was issued a visa valid until July this year as he is married to a UK citizen.

Mark Ashley, defending, said that at the time of the offence his client was unemployed and had debts of between £7,000 and £10,000.

The money had not been spent on luxuries or high living, he said, but on simple day-to-day expenses for his family.

Timur had tried to borrow some money from a friend, he said, and he put him in touch with someone who used his account and was to receive £1,200 for his part in the crime.

Timur was given a nine-month jail term suspended for two years. He has to do 120 hours of unpaid work and pay £5,074 in compensation.