Husband found wife was thief when shop books didn’t balance
A GARAGE manager investigating money that had gone missing found his own wife was the thief.
Ian Parkin has since resigned from the 24/7 Express Store where his wife worked shifts on the till and couldn’t resist the “thrill” of trying to find a winning Lottery scratchcard ticket, Cardiff Crown Court heard.
Karen Parkin, 52, was given a suspended jail sentence for stealing to feed her gambling addiction.
Prosecutor Gareth James said the owner of the Globe Garage in Porthcawl – who had been alerted to losses by his accountants – still maintains that £23,000 has gone astray.
But Parkin admitted to only taking 20 scratch cards each time she did a shift and accepted she stole between £3,000 and £3,600 over about a 12-month period.
She was ordered to pay back just £400 because she and her husband are now living on benefits and looking for new jobs.
The court heard how proprietor Colin Owens realised there were discrepancies and asked his manager to commence an investigation.
“But the manager was Mr Parkin and his wife obviously realised her involvement was about to be discovered,” Mr James said.
When she confessed, her husband was left to call his boss and “confirm it was his wife”.
Mr James told the court: “At that time, she had accepted taking 300 scratch cards but later it was realised it could be substantially more than that.”
Mr Parkin went with his wife when she handed herself in at a police station.
She told the officers she’d been working shifts three or four days a week and would help herself to 20 Lottery cards each time.
If she had a winner, she would pocket the cash and if the card lost, would simply put it in the bin.
“She said there were no significant wins,” Mr James said.
“At the end of her shift, she manipulated the figures and handed them to her husband who wouldn’t check because he trusted her.
“She said she did it for the thrill of taking the cards and also because she’d had a few traumatic years and had debts.”
Parkin, of Mariner’s Point, Sandfields, Port Talbot, admitted theft and was said to be “embarrassed and ashamed”.
“She lost her job and her husband felt he had to resign too and both are now on employment support allowance,” solicitor Rhodri Chudleigh said.
“She has no previous convictions and at the time had recently lost her brother and then her father and was at a particularly low ebb.”
Judge Jonathan Furness QC told her: “It is a very sad day when you have come before the court for such an offence at your age and as a woman of clean character.
“You got caught up in the excitement of scratching cards and what started at just one or two, grew to 20 a day.
“You had the responsibility of balancing the books at the end of each day and this was a high degree of breach of trust.”
Parkin was given a fourmonth suspended jail sentence with a three-month night-time curfew from 8pm “as punishment”.