NUMBER UP FOR LOTTERY CARD CHEAT
Cashier stole £11k winnings
A SHOP supervisor who pinched more than £21,000 of Lotto scratchcards so she could buy a car has been jailed.
Gemma Francis raked in £11,780 in winnings during the year-long scam.
She began stealing after she started working at a Costcutter store in December 2016. She was caught on CCTV pocketing packets of the cards – which cost between £1 and £10 each – and activating them herself.
Prosecutor Stuart Ellacott said: “She readily admitted she had taken the scratchcards and had been doing so since joining the company.
“She was asked why she had done this by the manager, but didn’t seem to know why. Her best answer was she was saving for a car.”
Francis, 27, who worked at the Costcutter store in Winton, Bournemouth, claimed her winnings at different shops and went to the Post Office for larger claims.
Kevin Hill, mitigating at Bournemouth Crown Court, said she might have a gambling problem and that her actions had brought shame on her family.
Francis,of Bournemouth, admitted theft and was jailed for eight months. ®
A WOMAN has appeared in court over a £48,000 benefit fraud. Stacey Forster claimed income support, council tax benefit and housing benefit over a six-year period.
But she had not alerted the authorities to a change in her circumstances, the court heard.
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Forster, 26, of Walker, Newcastle, admitted dishonestly failing to report the change, which affected her entitlement to benefits.
North Tyneside magistrates sent the case to crown court as they felt their sentencing powers were insufficient.