Charity shop boss stole takings
WOMAN, 36, POCKETED ALMOST £3K DURING A ‘DIFFICULT PERIOD’ IN HER PERSONAL LIFE
A CHARITY shop manager stole shop takings after she got in debt and was going through a difficult time, a court heard.
Joanna Lawton pleaded guilty to the theft of £2,923.65 which she took from the Mencap shop, in the Priory Shopping Centre, Worksop.
The shop supports local people with learning disabilities and Lawton had worked there for two years.
Part of her job was to bank daily takings and she deposited them a couple of times a week, Nottingham Crown Court heard.
When a check was made on the takings, the amount for April 2019, which was £2,923.65, had not been banked and the cash was missing.
Dawn Pritchard, prosecuting, said: “It is clear that money was taken and was not banked and her job, as manager of that store, was to do that”.
Lawton, 36, of Chapel Gate Court, Retford, gave a voluntary interview to police. She confirmed the banking was her sole responsibility but could not explain where the money had gone and did not accept she had taken it. But she later went on to plead guilty. A business impact statement from the regional manager was read to the court which referred to Lawton being suspended on May 16, 2019.
Lawton, who was of good character, was represented in court by Tom Heath who said “this is a relatively shortened period of criminality”.
“At the time of the offence, she was having a particularly difficult period,” he told the court.
Her partner had left her, she had accumulated debts of £10,000 in council tax and other such bills, and she was struggling to cope.
She was struggling a great deal with depression and this led to her consuming a great deal of alcohol in the evenings, added Mr Heath. She is now back with the partner and working as a quality assistant at a popcorn factory.
Judge John Burgess told Lawton: “You are 36. You have never been in trouble before. You had a responsible job working for a very important charity.
“It is extraordinary that a person such as you should become dishonest and help yourself to the takings you should be banking. It is a mean offence”.
He accepted that things were difficult in her life at the time but “it doesn’t excuse what you did”.
He imposed an eight-month prison sentence, suspended for 18 months, and gave her 20 rehabilitation activity days and 150 hours of unpaid work “to pay back for the wrong that you have done,” added the judge.
After considering her means, he ordered she pay a proportion of the money she stole to Mencap in the amount of £1,200 compensation.
You had a responsible job working for a very important charity. Judge John Burgess