Fife store’s deputy manager stole £1000 from safe
The deputy manager of a Co-op store stole £1000 from a safe because she was being threatened over a drugs debt.
When the manager of the Rosyth store left her charge over a weekend, Kiera Bartram took her chance to steal the cash.
She then came up with excuses about why the money was missing but eventually admitted she was responsible.
However, when she appeared at Dunfermline Sheriff Court, the thief avoided having to repay the money after a sheriff heard she was thousands of pounds in debt.
Kiera Bartram (33), of Parkneuk Road, Dunfermline, admitted that on 19th May at the Co-operative Group, Castlandhill Road, Rosyth, while deputy manager there, she embezzled £1000.
The court was told that the store manager had to go away for a few days on company business and Bartram was left in charge over the weekend.
The store manager then received a message from a team leader to say £975 was missing from the safe.
Bartram initially said the missing money was the result of a mistake made in the store or had something to do with the post office business there.
However, an internal inquiry found there was actually £1000 missing and Bartram admitted she was responsible.
She said she had taken the money because she owed a drugs debt. The money was not recovered.
Defence solicitor Barbara Collie said, “She had accrued a debt to a drugs dealer and was being threatened.”
Her client was now unemployed, having lost her job and also owed thousands of pounds from pay day loans.
She said her client had offered to pay back the money at £10 a month. This would have taken more than eight years for the Co-op to have the stolen cash returned.
Sheriff Alastair Thornton told Bartram, “This was a very clear breach of trust. You were given responsibility in the company and you betrayed that faith.
“It’s only because you are a first offender that I’m not imposing a custodial sentence.”
Instead, he imposed a community payback order with 180 hours of unpaid work.
He said ordinarily he would have imposed a compensation order but on this occasion he would not, given Bartam’s financial circumstances.