A VAN driver working for the Boots store in March stole �400 when entrusted to bank the store’s takings - and then doctored the books to try to cover her tracks.

Karen Doherty ripped pages from a paying in book and forged another worker’s signature, Fenland magistrates heard.

The 43-year-old took the money because she felt that the store should have paid her petrol money for using her own car on company business.

And she used some of the cash to provide meals for some lonely people over the Christmas period, her solicitor told the court.

David Chapple explained: “She doesn’t feel it is right for anyone to feel lonely over Christmas.

“Because she was short of money, she used some of the money made available to her.”

Doherty, of Mallard Way, March, admitted stealing �200 on December 30 last year, and stealing another �200 from Boots on January 11.

Prosecuting, Nicola Rice said Doherty’s main job was to deliver medication to customers, but she was sometimes asked to take cash and the paying in book to the Post Office.

The offences came to light when discrepancies were noticed in the paying in book; on one occasion �1,720 should have been banked, but paperwork had been altered, to show the sum of �1,520. Another member of staff’s signature had been forged, and a page ripped out. On an earlier date, �1,595 should have been banked, but only �1,395 had been paid in.

Miss Rice said: “It was clear that the paying in book had been doctored, and less money was paid in on both occasions.”

Mitigating, Mr Chapple added: “She did not forge a signature to divert suspicion on to someone else.

“My client was moving this money around as a favour, it was not part of her job description. She was doing it at her own expense, using her own private vehicle; she was not being properly remunerated or compensated.”

Sentencing was adjourned until February 22.