A salesgirl was accused today of stealing up to €11,000 worth of clothes from her employer, Terranova.

Sabrina Chetcuti, 24, from Marsascala, pleaded not guilty of whittling away the items together with colleagues. She  insisted the value was minimal and nothing like the huge amount attributed to her.

She was originally charged with stealing less than €230 but in the proceedings today, the charges were corrected and the amount increased to €11,000.

Noella Agius, a former colleague of Ms Chetcuti said that they used to work at the Paola branch of Terranova when they were caught stealing in July 2010.

Ms Agius had admitted to the theft and was conditionally discharged for six months.

She said she only began taking items after noticing colleagues whittling away things such as bags and other types of clothing, adding that she took some 70 items in total on two occasions.

At one point during her testimony she said that she only ever saw colleagues taking items once but after Police Inspector Jurgen Vella and Magistrate Carol Peralta warned her of lying under oath she said that she saw colleagues take items some three times.

Taking the witness stand, former police inspector Alexander Grech  confirmed that Ms Chetcuti had admitted to stealing from the shop some 10 times taking one item each time which were valued between €1.99 and €7.99.

Mr Grech said that while he could remember that the amount stolen was very large he was not the person who issued the original charges.

Another woman, Maria Agius, 21, from Paola is also charged over the theft and proceedings are pending against her.