A supervisor who felt she had been unfairly passed over for promotion went on a 'spree of dishonesty' stealing more than �15,000 from the North Norfolk store where she worked, a court heard yesterdayLouise Hall, 30, thought she was in line to be manager at the Downham Market store of McColl's, but instead was moved to work as a supervisor at the Aylsham store, and felt frustrated about the situation so she started taking cash by making fraudulent electronic payments to her pre-paid MasterCard, Norwich Crown Court heard.

A supervisor who felt she had been unfairly passed over for promotion went on a 'spree of dishonesty' stealing more than �15,000 from the north Norfolk store where she worked, a court heard last week.

Louise Hall, 30, thought she was in line to be manager at the Downham Market store of McColl's, but instead was moved to work as a supervisor at the Aylsham store. She felt frustrated about the situation so she started taking cash by making fraudulent electronic payments to her pre-paid MasterCard, Norwich Crown Court heard.

Hall made 62 transactions sometimes in sums of �500 and used the money to buy a �2000 car to get to work and also for daily household expenses, as she was the main breadwinner in the family.

When her thefts were discovered, Hall admitted she had taken the money and told police she was not being paid for travelling to work and was working long hours and not seeing her family.

Hall of Seagate Road, Long Sutton, admitted the theft of the cash between July 21 and August 23 last year.

Recorder Ian Wood imposed a nine-month prison sentence suspended for 12 months and placed her on a 12-month supervision order. He also ordered her to do 100 hours unpaid work.

He told Hall it was a serious offence and accepted she had been under stress at the time having been moved to work in Aylsham but said: 'What is clear that out of frustration that once there, you embarked on a spree of gross dishonesty.'

He said that it was a breach of trust as she was a supervisor for the store and said her 'criminal culpability' was high.

Jude Durr, for Hall, said she thought she was taking over as manager of the Downham Market store and had moved her family from Norfolk to Lincolnshire only to find she was asked to work at Aylsham.

'She was acting as a relief manager but was not being paid for that'

He said she felt frustrated about the situation and had taken the money to pay for household expenses and to buy a new car to get to work.

He said: 'There were no grand gestures.'

He said that she had repaid some of the cash as she had �870 of her wages held back by the company when the thefts came to light.