Shop thief threw trust in our faces

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A convicted post office thief has been spared jail despite admitting stealing cash from another employer.

Karen Lesley Walker, 40, stole £300 from the Spar, on Victoria Dock, east Hull, where she was working as a shift supervisor.

It came less than a year after she was released from prison for stealing from customers' letters at Gipsyville Post Office, west Hull.

Walker, of The Greenway, Gipsyville, was sentenced to a 12-month community order after pleading guilty to theft.

It means she will be under supervision of the Probation Service for the next year and will undergo a series of counselling sessions.

However, her employer branded the sentence a "joke".

Neil Haylock, 57, has owned the shop with his wife Moira and two daughters for 14-years.

He told the Mail: "I am astonished she didn't go to prison.

"She has completely thrown the trust we had in her back in our faces.

"I can't believe the sentence wasn't stiffer after her betrayal – not only because of the theft but she also lied when we employed her."

Walker was employed initially as one of 14 store assistants last November.

When she applied for the job she lied on her application form and denied having a criminal record in interview.

After a promising start, Walker was promoted to shift supervisor – giving her more responsibility and access to other staff members' tills.

Mr Haylock was told by someone who knew Walker she had lied on her application form and when he confronted her she admitted to stealing from his store.

He said he believed she stole small amounts from her own till which would go unnoticed and use other staff members' identification to gain entry to their tills and steal larger amounts of cash.

The community order follows a sentence Walker was given in April last year of six months behind bars following a sting operation by Royal Mail investigators, although she was released on tag after six weeks.

She was a sub-postal assistant at Gipsyville Post Office from February 2004 until December 2007, when she was caught out by post master John Burton following several customer complaints.

He informed Royal Mail and together they tested her honesty by sending a spoof customer with two who filled one envelope with £50 cash in front of her.

The investigators waited until the collection had taken place to see if she had intercepted the post and it was found the envelope containing the £50 was missing.

A further offence was discovered on historic CCTV footage.

Mr Burton said: "I cannot believe she escaped prison.

"How can you go to prison for one offence, get out and then commit the same act but get off with a community order.

"Karen Walker betrayed my trust, the trust of the public and the trust of her new employer, it was deliberate and calculated in the way she set out to steal money."