Witness says company inflated value of stolen goods

Magistrate Carol Peralta today continued hearing the compilation of evidence in the case of 24-year-old Sabrina Chetcuti charged with stealing items from the Terranova outlet in Paola.  The prosecution claims that the woman stole from the Terranova clothes shop on at least 10 separate occasions.

Testifying against her former co-worker, Caruana said that in 2010 she was Terranova's HR officer. She had received information that the Paola outlet was losing sales. Subsequently a number of salesgirls admitted to stealing items from the shop.

Caruana did not recall ever talking to Chetcuti, however she remembered that the company directors had spoken to the accused.

The witness claimed that salesgirl Noella Agius, who pleaded guilty earlier in the proceedings had told the directors that Sabrina Chetcuti was the one that took most of the items. Chetcuti was the outlet's manager.

In previous sittings Noella Agius admitted to the charges and was given a six-month conditional discharge.  However she held the value of the items stolen was between €1.99 and €7.99 per item. The total value, she said, could not have been more than €70.  However after checking through the accounts records the company concluded that the value of the stolen items amounted to thousands of euros.

Salesgirl Maria Agius also testified against her co-worker. She told the court that she used to work at Terranova but was fired when she admitted to stealing items. Agius explained how three of them were involved in the illicit activity but she never saw Chetcuti in the act of lifting items. She continued that the accused used to take clothes but is not aware if the clothes had security tags or not.

Agius had previously admitted to stealing €100 worth of items and was handed a three year conditional discharge. The company directors however had told her that the amount was much more and had deducted €700 from her final salary.

Magistrate Peralta postponed the case for November.