Pret a Manger manager ran cash takeaway

A Pret A Manger cashier who helped himself to hundreds of pounds from the till was jailed for three months today (thurs).

Thomas Norman, 25, stole £700 while working at the Belgravia branch of the coffee shop in Grovesnor Place.

Norman logged into the till but he was caught on CCTV dipping his fingers in the till, Southwark Crown Court heard.

He was jailed for three months after Judge Alistair McCreath told him ‘I have read your letter which tells me that this was a job that you valued – the job itself and for the friendships that went with it.

‘You recognise that your foolish and reckless behaviour has robbed you of that job and those friendships.

‘I also recognise that the offence itself was not in any sense planned.

‘It seems to me that the proper sentence overall for you is one of three months imprisonment.’

Norman was first caught stealing cash from the till on January 8 but not arrested until last month.

Prosecutor Gregor McKinley explained: ‘The defendant was entrusted to work the till.

‘Because of administrative difficulties at the shop he was not assigned his own login to the till as he would normally be.’

The court heard Norman has previous convictions including for a burglary in which he stole £5,000 worth of goods including two expensive watches and a computer.

He was only caught out on that occasion by a fingerprint on glass he had broken to gain entry.

Paul Renteurs, defending, said Norman’s ‘very real remorse and regret’ and explained that he had struggled with a drug addiction.

Norman had been working at Pret for 13 months before the theft.

Norman, of Springbank Road, Lewisham, was jailed for three months after he admitted theft and breaching a suspended sentence.
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