News

Employee admits burglary at Yateley barbers

By Laura Nightingale
February 15, 2013

AN employee at a barbers’ shop in Yateley returned to his place of work after hours to steal money from the cash float.

Andrew Homes admitted a charge of burglary when he appeared at Aldershot Magistrates’ Court on February 7, after stealing £100 cash from Kerries Barbers where he worked at the time.

Homes, 42, was caught on CCTV trespassing by the shop in Plough Road, said Serena Edwards, prosecuting.

“This is a breach of trust matter,” Miss Edwards said.

“On January 17, Kerrie Woodhouse, who owns the barbers’ shop, locked the premises before going home and it seems that on that day the defendant took the keys.

“He went back to the shop after work hours and went back into the shop.

“CCTV showed that he went into the office to take the float and he was in there for about two minutes.”

When a member of staff arrived at the shop the following morning, the door was open and she alerted her manager, Miss Edwards said.

The float and the box in which the money was kept was reported stolen and later Homes was arrested.

In a police interview, Homes said he went into the shop to get his wages and that night he had taken crack cocaine.

He first denied he had taken the float money.

Gillian Bell, defending Homes, said her client was “under pressure” in the lead-up to the offence from associates he had met earlier in his life.

He had known these associates during a four-year period when he had previously been addicted to crack cocaine.

The court was told that on January 17 he had a “relapse”.

“It is a night he regrets,” Miss Bell said.

“He has moved away from a problem individual and has moved in with his mother.”

Following his burglary, Homes lost his job at the barbers and as a result his accommodation too. Homes used to live in Somerset Road, Farnborough, but has now moved to Wokingham with his elderly parents.

Miss Bell said Homes hoped to find a new job away from his old crowd and had an interview lined up in Oxford.

David Perren, chairman of the bench, ordered Homes to carry out 80 hours of community service within the next 12 months.

Homes was also made to repay his employer the money he stole, as well as pay a £60 victim compensation charge and £20 towards court costs.