Bridgwater shop manager stole £24,000 (From Bridgwater Mercury)

Bridgwater shop manager stole £24,000

2:50pm Monday 8th March 2010 in

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A FORMER Bridgwater bakery manager admitted taking more than £24,000 from her shop in her resignation letter to colleagues, a court was told.

Tina McLaughlin, 46, of Sandringham Close, pleaded guilty to eleven counts of theft totalling £24,320 from Greggs bakery, in Bridgwater's High Street, between April and July last year.

Taunton Crown Court heard on Friday how McLaughlin was regarded as a valued employee at the bakery, where she had worked for seven years.

But when the mother-of-four came into severe financial hardship, due to a number of deaths in her family, she began to take money from Greggs.

The court was told she intended to pay the money back but was unable to.

Rebecca Bradbury, prosecuting, told the court: “She got to the point where she could no longer cope.

“She handed in a letter of resignation and admitted the offences in the letter.”

During mitigation, the court was told McLaughlin had financial pressures after the death of family members, and had also been left to support her widowed mother after the recent death of her brother.

Judge Graham Hume Jones sentenced her to 12 months in prison, suspended for two years, and handed her a two-year supervision order with 150 hours unpaid work.

He told her: “You were in a position of trust and you know that this is very serious.

“But I am told you have considerable problems in the background and I take the view that it is unlikely you will back before a court again.”