5:01pm Friday 3rd July 2009
A BRIERLEY Hill club stewardess who stole £10,000 from the till over a 12-month period to ease her mounting financial problems has been spared an immediate jail sentence.
Stephanie Skitt took the money from the safe at the Liberal Club and it was used to "keep her debts at bay” Wolverhampton Crown Court heard.
Shane Crawford, defending, told the court the 29-year-old pregnant mother-of-one accepted it was a serious breach of trust and she was full of remorse for her actions.
He said: “She tried it once, it went unnoticed and things just snowballed. There was no lavish lifestyle."
Skitt, of School Road, Quarry Bank, admitted theft and was given a nine-month prison sentence suspended for two years together with a 12 month Supervision Order.
Recorder Nigel Baker QC told her: "You were systematically helping yourself to sums of money for a considerable period of time."
He warned Skitt cases involving a serious breach of trust normally resulted in immediate imprisonment but he ruled he was just able to allow her to keep her freedom because she was a woman of previous good character.
Edward Soulsby, prosecuting, said Skitt took sums from the club safe varying from £50 to £1,000 - all monies she should have banked.
The crimes came to light, he added, when she was asked for £3,000 from the safe to pay a bill and she had to admit the money had been spent.
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