Specsavers manager caught with hands in till

A practice manager in Dorset was this week ordered to serve 150 hours' community service after stealing an 'unknown amount' of money from the till of the Weymouth branch of Specsavers.

Sharon Chance, 37, took around £5,000 according the Dorset Echo after her family tax credit was reduced. She pleaded guilty to theft at Weymouth Magistrates Court in a trial last week.

Elizabeth Valera, prosecuting, said that store director and optometrist Karen Gilliver was alerted by Specsavers head office last August that money was missing.

When surveillance equipment was installed, the money stopped disappearing. A loss prevention team found that between January and November 2005, the till's refund button was pressed 110 times. This button would on average normally be used only three times over such a period.