£12k taken from post office to pay for funeral

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A "PERFECTLY decent" woman stole £12,000 from the post office she worked at as a "loan" to pay for her mother's funeral.

Ina Tucker, 47, worked at Caereithin Post Office, run by Khadim Hussain and his wife.

Tucker, of Gendros Avenue West, Gendros, took money from the business and then altered the computer system to show the money was still present in accounts.

But at the beginning of this year, an internal audit revealed £9,000 was missing from the store at Pentregethin Road, Ravenhill. Tucker then admitted she had already begun making secret repayments of £3,000 to cover her tracks.

Swansea Crown Court heard she begun taking the £12,000 after the death of her mother in 2011, but continued to take more.

Paul Hobson, representing Tucker, said she had already taken steps to repay the money to the post office owners.

The couple had to pay back the remaining missing £9,000 back to the Post Office, from their own savings.

Mr Hobson said Tucker, who had no previous convictions and had since lost her job.

"What she admitted doing was totally out of character and whilst it doesn't lessen its seriousness, it's really at odds with the type of person she is," said Mr Hobson.

Tucker admitted a single charge of false accounting.

Judge Paul Thomas said: "However this is described in legal terms, however it's dressed it, the fact remains that at the age of 47 you have now been revealed as a thoroughly dishonest woman.

"That's the burden you now bear having, for the last 47 years, lived a perfectly decent and hardworking life," he said.

"Your intention was not to take that money permanently but to use it as a loan, as a fund you could call upon" he said.

"Thefts of this kind are all too common," said the judge.

He said he accepted she did not steal the money to fund an extravagant lifestyle.

He ordered Tucker to repay the couple £200 a month and said if extra funds became available, she should repay them to Mr and Mrs Hussain.

Judge Thomas gave Tucker a 10 month sentence, suspended for two years. He also ordered she complete 250 hours unpaid work.

"You are very fortunate to be escaping a prison sentence," the judge added.