Shop worker stole £2000 to fund drug habit

SHOP assistant, who pocketed £2000 of customers' money to pay for his drug habit, has been ordered to perform 180 hours of Community Service.

Ryan Courtney, 26, of Oxgangs Avenue, Edinburgh, appeared in the city's Sheriff Court today where he was told his action had been a serious breach of trust.

Courtney had pled guilty previously to stealing various sums of money while working in British Home Stores on Princes Street between April and October last year. Sentence had been deferred for background reports.

Fiscal Depute, Siobhan Monks, said staff watching on CCTV saw a customer approach the counter where Courtney was serving, to purchase a shirt. When the money was handed over, Courtney was seen to put it into his pocket. When he was challenged, 40 was found in his possession and he admitted taking it. He was suspended and after further investigations, he admitted taking about 2000 over the period.

Defence solicitor advocate, Duncan Hughes, told Sheriff James Scott that his client was taking the money to fund a drug habit. He had lost his job with BHS. Mr Hughes said that Courtney had approached his GP for help to tackle the drug problem. Courtney, said his solicitor, had pled guilty at the first opportunity and did not have a significant record. He was also said to be at low risk of re-offending. Mr Hughes said agents for BHS had written to his client to recover the amount taken. "He will have to find a way to repay that money, perhaps not through the criminal courts" he said. His client, he added, accepted that the thefts had been a serious breach of trust.

Sheriff Scott told Courtney he was right to regard the offence as a serious matter, but in view of the early plea and the background reports, he was prepared to impose a Community Service Order as an alternative to custody.