Barmen raided club tills and gave cash to friend

8:44am Saturday 26th April 2008

TWO barmen "skimmed" takings from the tills of a popular North-East nightclub and passed money to a friend posing as a customer, a court heard yesterday.

Management at the Tall Trees, in Yarm, near Stockton, realised cash was going missing and asked senior staff to look out for those responsible.

Door supervisor Jason Martin spotted Dean Baker remove a handful of notes and give them to Junior Pennicott on a busy Saturday night before Christmas last year.

Pennicott walked to a different bottle bar in the nightspot and was seen receiving money from another friend, Keiran Neylan, Teesside Crown Court was told.

Baker's brother, Michael, was also working that night and even though he was not seen taking cash, he was arrested along with the others, said Gale Gilchrist, prosecuting.

Michael Baker admitted he had received £50 from the others on a different occasion and the friends confessed to police that they had carried out similar thefts twice before.

Bosses at the club could not tell how much had been taken, the court heard, but the men claimed in interviews that it was about £650.

David Lamb, for 22-year-old Neylan, described the offending as "unsophisticated till-skimming" and said no innocent employees came under suspicion.

Neylan, of Rothwell Crescent, Stockton, has since found work as a fitness instructor and as a part-time shelf-stacker at a supermarket.

Dean Baker's barrister, Richard Herrmann, said: "He acknowledges fully the breach of trust, has shown significant regret and knows his behaviour is wholly unacceptable."

Baker, 23, of Ingleby Close, Middlesbrough, is hoping to study engineering at college and became a father this month.

Aisha Wadoodi, for Pennicott, 23, of Borough Road, Middlesbrough, said: "He is appalled he is before the court today. It is genuine shock he behaved this way."

Pennicott, who works part-time in a department store and is in the final year of a degree, hopes to become a graphic designer. Michael Baker, 25, of Laburnam Way, Middlesbrough, has a degree and plans to become a teacher.

His barrister, Sean Thornton, told the court: "He doesn't want this to scupper his chances. This conviction is going to cast a long shadow over him."

Judge Les Spittle ordered Dean Baker, Neylan and Pennicott to each complete 150 hours of unpaid work and pay £200 compensation and £262 costs after they admitted theft on December 15, and between October and December 14 last year.

Michael Baker was given a 12-month conditional discharge and ordered to pay £50 compensation and £262 costs after he admitted handling stolen goods.

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