Thieving barman gets 18 months

A London barman was jailed for 18 months by Southwark Crown Court last week after stealing £15,000 from the tills of a string of bars across the capital.

Lawrence Hargreaves, aged 33, admitted two offences of thefts from pubs in June, and asked for 17 offences committed in other London pubs between April and October last year to be taken into consideration. These offences were aggravated by a similar stealing spree in North Yorkshire last year. Hargreaves was jailed for nine months in January by Leeds Crown Court on nine offences of theft, and returned to London on his release in May.

Hargreaves had been manager of a four-star hotel in London before being made redundant. "It is remarkable that public houses give staff access to substantial sums of cash, without checking on the past character of their employees," concluded Judge Peter Fingret, adding that Hargreaves had exploited this "gross inefficiency" in the industry.