Sharon Gill worked as a branch manager for the pawnbroker :: She also took money to help pay off household bills
A mum who stole thousands of pounds after her daughter begged to go on a college trip to the USA was spared jail.
Sharon Gill was a branch manager for pawnbroker Ramsdens who had worked for the company for seven years.
The 44-year-old fiddled the books to fund the New York visit which was part of her daughter’s college course, and she continued to steal for a year to pay off household bills.
Prosecutor Jenny Haigh told Teesside Crown Court that the single mum stole almost £25,000 at the branch in Acklam Road, Whinney Banks, Middlesbrough, and managed to evade four audits.
Keith Brown, the financial director of Ramsdens, finally discovered the bogus transactions, and Gill admitted the thefts last December before the police were brought in.
Miss Haigh added: “She said she knew it was only a matter of time before she would get caught.”
Gill had started stealing just weeks after completing a community order for a conviction for Social Security benefit offences.
Robert Mochrie, defending, said there was no evidence of high-living by Gill, who was a single mother living in rented accommodation with an 18-year-old daughter.
He said Gill, from Billingham, claimed she had stolen nearer £15,000.
Mr Mochrie said that Gill was now unable to work because of health difficulties.
Judge David Hatton QC told her: “You were in a very high degree of trust as a branch manager and the offence is aggravated by the prolonged period over which it was carried out, and by the fact that you have a previous conviction for dishonesty albeit of a different nature and the community order which was imposed for that had only expired and you embarked on this course of conduct.”
Gill, of Fielding Court, was given a 20-month jail sentence suspended for two years with supervision for 12 months, a five month tagged curfew between 9pm and 6am, and she was ordered to pay £100 statutory surcharge after she pleaded guilty to theft and false accounting.
The judge said he would have liked to also impose unpaid work on her but the Probation Service could not get insurance for her because of her health problems.
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