A shop worker, who stole almost £10,000 worth of lottery tickets weeks after he was held at gunpoint in the Darlington convenience store, has been given three weeks to pay the money back to avoid an immediate prison sentence.
According to Yahoo News, store’s worker David Tooth started running off tickets without paying just weeks after he was held at gunpoint in the store where he worked.
The 33-year-old was so trusted by the shop owner that she allowed him to help her investigate a stock discrepancy of £49,000, Teesside Crown Court heard.
Jon Harley, prosecuting, said an audit of the accounts of the Blackwell Store and Post Office discovered the missing money after which Tooth was identified as being responsible for £9,839.50 worth of the theft.
“He was spoken to by the owner and presented with the evidence that she had found and, to be fair to him, accepted his responsibility from the outset.
“He was printing off lottery tickets and not paying for them. He was using a ticket with a chance to win but not paying for it when he should have been.”
In a victim impact statement, the shop owner said she felt let down and angry by the actions of Tooth who was a trusted employee at the business.
The judge heard that another person was ‘going through the court system’ in connection with the theft from the business but there was no evidence of a ‘conspiracy’ with Tooth.
Tooth, of Ravensdale Road, Darlington, pleaded guilty to one charge of theft that happened between March 31, 2018, and January 24, 2020.
Jane Waugh, mitigating, said her client’s offending started within weeks due to the mental impact of him being held at gunpoint during a robbery at the shop where the perpetrator was jailed for ten-years.
“He didn’t offend indiscriminately, he is offending on the place where the trauma occurred,” she said.
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