Carter, 41, was the secretary of the Wagga-based hockey club from 2006 to 2009 and on a number of occasions forged cheques and deposited the club’s money into her private account.

After being discovered Carter told police the money was mainly gambled away on poker machines.

Magistrate Tony Murray sentenced Carter in Wagga Local Court yesterday saying while the offences occurred over a long period, they were at the lower end of objective seriousness.

Mr Murray took into account a large amount of subjective material tendered by defence solicitor Andrew Hanshaw when making his decision.

On the first three charges of obtaining money by deception, Carter was ordered to perform 150 hours of community service and then another 250 hours for the fourth, fifth and sixth charges.

A compensation order for the $20,900 was also made with Carter already having paid $9000.

“(Carter) is trying her best to repay the large amount of money but it is difficult in her current financial situation,” Mr Murray said.

“The reason for the breach of trust was her gambling addiction ... in total as much as $150,000 was lost on the pokies.”

The majority of the evidence was tendered to the court on Monday but Mr Murray reserved his judgement given the complexity of the issue and the large amount of reading material.