By Victoria Brenan

Last updated at 13:09, Saturday, 24 November 2012

A woman who stole from the garden centre where she worked had previously been sacked for stealing £10,000 from an elderly customer while working at a bank.

Judge Paul Batty: Told Pamela Rudd she was ‘utterly and deeply dishonest’

Pamela Rudd, 31, did not tell her new employers about her previous conviction and they found out about it only after she was charged with stealing eggs and haylage worth £42.

At Carlisle Crown Court, Judge Paul Batty QC told her she was “utterly and deeply dishonest” – both for committing the thefts and for keeping quiet about the first one when she applied for her job as manager of the garden centre.

Rudd pleaded guilty to stealing seven haylage bales and a tray of eggs from the Garden of Eden, near Calthwaite.

She was given a nine-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, and ordered to do 200 hours unpaid community work.

Garden centre owner Jacqueline Radcliffe told the court that when she appointed Rudd as manager two years ago she had no idea that she was a convicted criminal.

She said she had checked Rudd’s references with the previous employers she knew about, but since she had not even mentioned that she had once worked in a bank she could not check her history there.

“I would never have let someone cash up if I had known she was a thief,” she said.

The court heard that Mrs Radcliffe had felt “deep distress” and still suffered sleepless nights because of what had happened.

Rudd – who was caught after her partner was spotted on CCTV loading the haylage bales onto a truck – denied keeping Mrs Radcliffe in the dark about the bank theft.

She admitted she had not mentioned it at her interview, but claimed she told her after about two months in the job.

But after hearing her give evidence to that effect, Judge Batty told her: “I don’t believe a word of what you say.”

In mitigation defence barrister Greg Hoare said that going to jail would have “a disproportionate effect” on her. Judge Batty told Rudd, of Stone Crest, Warcop: “By this plain brazen theft you have caused an awful lot of people an awful lot of grief.

“You ought to be thoroughly ashamed of yourself.”

First published at 13:05, Saturday, 24 November 2012
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk