By Phil Coleman

Last updated at 12:20, Tuesday, 19 June 2012

A woman has been convicted of stealing money from a cash room at the Silloth holiday park set up by her grandfather and his brother.

Amanda Carter

Related: Cumbrian holiday park theft case was a set-up, court told

A crown court jury convicted Amanda Carter of six out of seven counts of theft that she faced.

The court had how the defendant is the 25-year-old granddaughter of Eric Stanwix, who set up the park with his brother Roland in 1965.

She went on trial after denying that she stole hundreds of pounds in £1 and £2 coins.

The court heard that the thefts happened in October and November 2010 when secret recordings were taken by a camera hidden in an air freshener.

After the verdict yesterday, Judge Peter Hughes QC imposed a six-month jail term but he suspended it for two years.

He also ordered that the defendant should do 250 hours of unpaid work for the community. Carter must also pay prosecution costs of £3,500.

Earlier in the case the court had heard how on several occasions a hidden camera captured footage of a woman switching off the light before entering the room and filling her pockets with cash.

Some footage showed Carter, of Golf Terrace, Silloth, entering the holiday park cash room but none of the video pictures clearly identified her as the thief.

At one point in the trial Stephen Stanwix, manager of the park’s leisure centre, acknowledged that there was a family feud.

He said: “They have not been getting on for more than four years.

“I’ve no problem with Eric senior, I still communicate with him; I need to at work.”

His father earlier claimed that £17,000 had gone missing from the balance sheet at the park. But Eric Stanwix denied there was a feud in the family as he gave evidence in support of his granddaughter.

First published at 11:27, Tuesday, 19 June 2012
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk