A FORMER bank manager who was working as a delivery driver for an Oswestry bakery has admitted a charge of stealing £27,000 from the company.
Graham Barnett, 65, has also pleaded guilty to stealing almost £4,000 while he was the treasurer for Cae Glas Cricket Club.
At Shrewsbury Crown Court last Thursday, Judge Peter Barrie adjourned sentence until May for reports and said both cases involved a breach of trust.
Barnett, of Hampton Fields, Oswestry, was warned he could face an immediate prison sentence,. He was allowed bail.
The offences are said to have taken place over a three-year period between February, 2008, and April, 2011, when Barnett worked for F. Smith and Son in Oswestry.
During the same period he has admitted taking £3,946 while the unpaid treasurer for the cricket club.
Barnett was due to stand trial later this month, but pleaded guilty to a single charge of stealing £27,000 from the bakery. He had admitted the cricket club theft at an earlier hearing.
Mr Robert Edwards, prosecuting, said Barnett had put forward a basis of plea for the bakery thefts in which he only accepted having £4,700.
He said that Barnett was involved in collecting money from customers and that the analysis of all the documents in the case was complex.
Mr Edwards said the defendant’s plea was accepted for the purposes of sentencing in the case, but the amount specified in the charge would be pursued under a Proceeds of Crime Act investigation.
Barnett has until April 4 to provide a statement of his assets for the court and any confiscation application will be considered at a later date.
Miss Samantha Crabb, for Barnett, said that her client would be in a position to repay the monies he accepts that he took from the bakery and the cricket club.