A TRUSTED member of staff who stole more than £20,000 from a Coventry menswear store was finally caught after trying to send a parcel of stolen clothing to his aunt.
But Ryan Clarke escaped being jailed after a judge at Warwick Crown Court heard that he had since borrowed from his parents to repay the money.
The 27-year-old, of Frolesworth Lane, Lutterworth, had pleaded guilty to two charges of theft from Chameleon Menswear in the West Orchards shopping centre in Coventry.
He was sentenced to 20 months in prison suspended for two years, with a rehabilitation activity, and was ordered to do 150 hours of unpaid work and to pay £1,000 costs.
Prosecutor Simon Burch said Clarke had stolen £20,000 in cash and thousands of pounds worth of clothing from Chameleon Menswear, where he was a highly trusted employee at the time.
His dishonesty came to light in October last year after another member of staff noticed a parcel that had been prepared for delivery, but which was not showing on the store’s system.
It was addressed to the Chadwick End, Solihull, home of a former employee, Clarke’s aunt, who it was said had ‘left under bad circumstances.’
The store’s owner David Godfrey was informed, and spoke to Clarke the following day about the package, which contained clothing worth £2,185.
At first Clarke claimed he had been sending it for him and a friend to try on the clothes, and that they were then going to pay for any they decided to buy.
He said he had done it once before, and was willing to pay for the clothes in the box.
The police were called, and when he was questioned he admitted he had deliberately deleted the order from the system.
In addition to the clothing, it was discovered that from February 2016 he had also stolen £20,000 by making transfers from the store’s account into his own Paypal account.
Delroy Henry, defending, said Clarke was a young man “living beyond his means” and it had been “a huge error of judgement”.
He pointed out the stoleen money had been repaid through “a mixture of his parents loaning him the money and some savings”.
Mr Henry added Clarke was now working as a web designer, and would be able to pay costs and repay his parents.
Sentencing Clarke, Judge Andrew Lockhart QC told him: “You were living the high life based on it costing Mr Godfrey and his business. It is corrosive offending, and you have a number of aggravating features to your offending.
“You have missed going to custody by a hair’s breadth.”
