The former manager of a clothes and accessories shop in Bay Street has been ordered to pay the owner €36,789.40 after being convicted of failing to deposit all of the shop's takings.

The case was instituted by Marthese Abela, owner of the shop So Divine, against Nicola Winter.

Ms Winter was employed as manager between 2009 and 2012 before being sacked after Ms Abela objected to a fashion website which Ms Winter has set up.

Subsequently Ms Abela noticed discrepancies between the daily cash takings and actual deposits. Several meetings were held between the two including one on June 1, 2012 during which Ms Winter signed a declaration in which Ms Abela claimed that Ms Winter assumed responsibility for the discrepancies and pledged to pay them back. She claimed €58,275 were due.

Ms Winter denied assuming responsibility and said she had only signed a declaration saying that as manager she was responsible if the claims were true and she should have checked matters. She said she was not the only one who made deposits, and when she did, she never checked the actual contents of the envelopes.

In her declaration, she said, she never admitted to stealing anything. She had also assumed at the meeting that the missing money being discussed covered a particular period and amounted to €2,700.

She also noted that the calculations made by the prosecution included periods when she was not working or was on maternity leave.

The court after examining the evidence, including the calculations submitted by the prosecution, said it was in no doubt that the accused had not fully deposited the shop's takings.

However the court found defects in the calculations made on behalf of the shop's owner. In some cases, the accused had been on leave and deposits were made by other persons. In other times, no explanation was given as to how deposits actually exceeded the takings.

The court after a detailed analysis of the figures ordered the accused to pay Ms Abela €36,789.40.