A BIDEFORD woman will be sentenced later this month for stealing up to £19,000 from the shop where she worked.

Susan Tolley, 46, of Barton Tors, East-the-Water, was due to be sentenced at Exeter Crown Court on Monday after admitting stealing from Best One Stores, at an earlier hearing.

Her case did not go ahead for administrative reasons and she was not required to attend court. She will instead be sentenced on December 22.

At a hearing at Exeter Crown Court in September, Tolley admitted stealing around £5,000 from Best One Stores over nine months, while the prosecution claimed it was around £19,000 over a two-year period.

Judge Graham Cottle ordered this should be resolved when Tolley next appears before the court for sentencing. He also asked the prosecution and defence to agree over her alleged criminal record.

She pleaded guilty to all 11 theft charges when she appeared before the court on September 4. Ten of these involved theft of various amounts of cash, totalling around £75.38, on January 16,17 and 18 this year. The 11th charge was a specimen count of stealing an unnamed quantity of goods and cash from the shop between January 1, 2007, and January 22 this year.

Prosecutor Christopher Bennett did not say where the shop was, what her job involved or how she stole the money, as the case was adjourned.

Tolley was bailed but warned she could face a jail sentence.