A Co-operative Travel manager who was sacked after stealing more than £1,400 from a customer booking has been ordered to pay it back as well as £250 costs.
Dawn Willis was managing The Co-operative Travel shop in Cradley Heath High Street, West Midlands when £1,410 for a group trip to Las Vegas went missing towards the end of last year.
The missing cash was noticed by Co-operative Travel accountants in December 2008 when Willis was sacked.
Willis had admitted receiving the money from the customer in a pub, before putting it in her handbag and taking it home. She claimed she only discovered the cash was missing from her bag when she went to pay it in on returning to the agency after taking a day off.
Willis, 41, of Broomhill Road, Erdington, Birmingham had then started repaying the cash herself, claiming the money was part of further payments made by the group.
However, on October 6 she was found guilty of the theft at Warley Magistrates Court, Birmingham where she was ordered to pay the monies as well as being placed under a two-year supervision order.
The Co-operative Travel director of retail distribution Trevor Davis said: “Naturally we were saddened when we discovered that monies had been taken – our stringent accounting procedures highlighted the theft.
“As always, we alerted the police to the incident immediately. Without exception, we will prosecute anyone who steals from our business.”