PEOPLE who steal from their employer face jail. Housewife Dale Hockey found that out when she was sent to prison for a month for stealing two digital cameras, valued at £504.60, from R. H. Gaudion and Sons Ltd at Camp du Roi.

She ordered the cameras but did not pay for them and gave them to her partner as Christmas presents.

Magistrate Russell Finch said this sort of theft would not be tolerated. He said that a probation report recommendation for a bind-over was unrealistic and rejected an appeal from defence counsel to consider a suspended sentence and supervision order.

‘The court has to be consistent and deal with these cases appropriately,’ said Mr Finch.

They would be treated seriously to send out the right message to others, he said.

‘It’s not simply your welfare I have to think about but the wider interest of justice in suppressing and dealing with breaches of trust,’ he told Hockey.

‘You were plainly in a position of trust in a business you describe as being like a family. It makes this breach a serious one.

‘We are not dealing with a young and immature person. The amount of property was hardly negligible,’ said Mr Finch.

He ordered her to pay compensation, to the value of the cameras, on her release.

Inspector Mike Brown told the court that Hockey had been employed as a supervisor in the electrical department and was responsible for ordering stock.

In the period leading up to Christmas last year, a discrepancy was found and Hockey admitted ordering the cameras under a fictitious name.

She had planned to pay for the goods, but when they arrived she did not and gave them away.

‘It was a breach of trust,’ said Inspector Brown.

Hockey had no relevant previous convictions.

Her advocate, Julia White, said that her client was not technically a supervisor but a sales assistant with responsibility for ordering goods.

‘She simply can’t explain why she did this,’ counsel told the court.

‘It was a one-off and there was no suggestion this was a series of thefts.’

Four people whom Hockey knew had died suddenly last year and a great change came over her towards the end of it, the court heard.

‘When these deaths occurred it hit her all the harder,’ said counsel.

She was an articulate person and her actions were completely out of character, Advocate White submitted.

Hockey had worked for 28 years and customers would treat her as an agony aunt, the court was told.

After the case Tony Gaudion, a director of the company, backed the Magistrate’s stance.

‘This was a very difficult one for us because we did think the world of Pip. Martyn [his son] lost a lot of sleep over this because he could not believe what was happening with a very trusted employee,’ he said.

‘She got on well with everybody, her personality was very good and she was liked by a lot of people. When certain things came to light the staff were gutted, but you come to terms with it and realise nobody is irreplaceable.

‘You all believe and trust each other and when someone lets you down, it’s unforgivable.

‘We gave her several chances to come clean but she tried to lie her way out of it and involved some of the other staff,’ said Mr Gaudion.

‘Stealing from anybody, especially your employer, is unforgivable – she had been well treated by everybody and she abused her position.’

He said the Magistrate had sent out the right message to others and hoped it might be of assistance to other businesses.