A court has ordered a former clothes shop manager to repay the owner nearly €37,000 after it found that she had failed to deposit all of the shop’s earnings.

The case was filed by Marthese Abela, owner of So Divine at the Bay Street Shopping Complex, against Nicola Winter.

The court heard that Ms Winter had been employed as shop manager between 2009 and 2012, before having her job terminated when she set up a website offering similar items to those offered by the shop where she worked.

Ms Abela told the court that she had started noticing discrepancies between the daily cash takings and the actual deposits. She claimed that the amount due totalled €58,275.

Following several meetings between the parties, in 2012 Ms Winter signed a declaration assuming responsibility for the shortfall and pledging to repay it, the court heard.

She was not the only person who would deposit the earnings

However, Ms Winter denied ever assuming liability, saying that she had only signed a declaration to the effect that she should have looked into it and that she would be responsible if the claim turned out to be true.

Ms Winter added that she was not the only person who would deposit the earnings. When she did, she would not check the contents of the envelopes.

She insisted she never admitted to stealing anything and that she had assumed, at the meeting, that the missing money in question amounted to €2,700.

Mr Justice Anthony Ellul said that while there was no doubt that Ms Winter had not deposited all earnings, there were errors in the calculations of missing cash, which included days when Ms Winter was on leave.

The court established that the sum which had not been deposited amounted to €36,789.40, and ordered Ms Winter to refund the shop owner.