A finance worker stole £75,000 from dead customers in order to fund a "lavish" luxury lifestyle, a court has ruled.

Corey Casagrande, 37, defrauded deceased Credit Suisse account holders out of the five-figure sum - with the money propping up expensive foreign travel and designer shoes.

Casagrande, from Duffryn in Newport, was a team leader at Target Financial Services, which dealt with clients including Barclays, the BBC and Credit Suisse - and enjoyed a "sophisticated" understanding of his firm's internal systems.

Via that understanding, Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court was told, Casagrande used faked documents from real solicitors to steal money from dead customers' accounts.

In total, the 37-year-old took £75,000 from three different Credit Suisse accounts by submitting claim forms with signed solicitors' letters attached - but said solicitors knew nothing of the letters.

Target Financial Services had opened an internal investigation into the matter when possible "irregularities" came to light, prosecutor Hashim Salmman said.

As part of the firm's probe, it looked through the social media profile of Casagrande's girlfriend: Jemma Connor, a fellow Target employee.

Connor had uploaded images of Christian Louboutin shoes and luxury holidays, which the court heard were "entries that suggested that she had been spending large amounts of money and living a lavish lifestyle".

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The 37-year-old Casagrande was interviewed - but then was dismissed after failing to turn up for a disciplinary hearing at work.

The finance worker was subsequently probed by police - to whom he admitted his role in the fraud but said his partner was "unaware of the source" of the sums of money he had given her, with Casagrande fessing up to "deceiving" her "as to the source" of the sum.

Both Connor and another employee were dismissed by Target after the internal investigation, the court was told, while Casagrande admitted to fraud by abuse of position for the crimes.

But Amelia Pike, defending, argued that Casagrande's crimes happened "at the peak" of a gambling addiction while he was "living the lifestyle which accompanies it" - adding that the 37-year-old was ashamed of his fraud.

Casagrande had been jailed before after both he and his girlfriend were caught smuggling cocaine from Liverpool to South Wales - but he had "turned his life around" since his release, the court heard, with Pike arguing he has attempted to "start afresh".

At the time, Connor admitted to the drug offences - for which she was slapped with a two-year suspended sentence and 250 hours of unpaid work, plus costs, the Mail reported.

Recorder Carl Harrison told Casagrande it was clear he was motivated by a monetary desire to pay off his debts and fund a "lavish lifestyle".

The 37-year-old was given a 20-month suspended sentence and was ordered to complete 80 hours of unpaid work.