A BRIDE was left devastated after her wedding DJ swiped "around 40 cards" full of cash from their guests on the special day and then scrawled "c***" in their guestbook.

Lauren George, 26, wed Christian, 29, in July but claims her wedding was ruined by DJ Tom Butterworth.

He even defaced their wooden guestbook frame by writing "c***" and "paedo" on two of the wooden hearts.

Butterworth, from Leeds, West Yorks, has since apologised and been given a caution for the theft.

But while he repaid £200 to the couple, they claim the amount is much lower than what was in the cards.

And despite admitting to the brazen theft, Butterworth is still advertising his services as a DJ on his Facebook page through another company - though they claim to have not worked with him since the incident came to light.

Lauren and Christian say that the theft ruined their honeymoon as the couple claim they had hoped to use the cash to go abroad, but instead had to settle for Butlins.

Meanwhile, poor Lauren was suffering a miscarriage throughout the ordeal, making it even harder to deal with.

Lauren, from Bradford, West Yorks, said: "To have that happen on our wedding was disgusting.

"Mentally, this has made me not want to trust another DJ. You'd expect to be able to trust someone like that. I felt like it was going to happen to someone else when I noticed he was still advertising as a DJ.

"I want to make sure no-one else gets the same treatment. I don't want anyone else to feel the same. We actually had an early miscarriage on the day of our wedding - that was ongoing for a few days.

"It was terrible to go through that on my wedding day too. It was like everything hit me like a truck."

Lauren had initially booked another DJ but was frustrated when he sent Butterworth as a last-minute replacement without warning them.

Angry they hadn't been sent the original DJ they booked, the couple questioned why Butterworth was there as his replacement.

The entertainer, who also works in the public sector, claims he felt threatened after wedding guests got too close to equipment and was worried about not being paid due to the dispute.

Lauren said: "We had actually employed a DJ that we'd seen before, but he sent Tom instead without telling us.

"Tom waited until the party had finished and told the pub that my husband or one of my guests had started an altercation with him.

"He said he needed some security. The bar shut all the doors and locked him inside. We were just outside with all our guests at the end of the night and he went into the party room after the bar staff had cleared everything.

"He walked in with his friend and you can see him on the CCTV stealing my cards out of the box and then taking them up to the stage, where he's obviously put them in his rucksack. He then walks out.

"We lost about 30 or 40 cards. He also wrote on my guestbook frame 'c***' and 'paedo' on two separate hearts. I'm a foster carer so it was heartbreaking to see he thought that was acceptable."

After losing the cards, one of which Lauren claims contained a £200 cash gift from her father, she had the "embarrassing" task of contacting guests and finding out how much they'd given for insurance purposes.

Butterworth subsequently handed himself into police after claiming it was completely out of character and was given a caution.

Tom, from Leeds, West Yorkshire, said: "I went to the police station. I gave the money back.

"The words written on the hearts was me. That was again, anger. I didn't really know how to respond. The amounts she's told you is all, I'm not going to say made up if people have told her that's how much they've put in, I don't know what they've told her.

"That's just a lie [that her dad put in £200]. On the night, I got a phone call earlier in the week from a DJ that I know through work. Towards the end of the night her husband came up and said he wasn't going to pay me, which I suppose was something that I needed to sort out afterwards."

He added: "I did take the cards. I've never said I didn't.

"There was £180 in cash and £20 in vouchers. That money stayed in my car from that night until the day I went to the police station.

"The amount that she asked for changed a number of times. As of then she started messaging me and straight away I apologised and said 'sorry, it were a massive mistake.'

"I took them out of anger and adrenaline. It's not something I've ever done before, I've no record. I'm a twenty-odd-year-old and I've never been arrested or anything like that."

A spokesperson for West Yorkshire Police confirmed a man was given a conditional caution after admitting taking and damaging property.