Fortnum's cashier pocketed £90,000

A cashier who stole more than £90,000 to feed her obsession with shopping was jailed for two years.

For nearly 12 months trusted Fortnum & Mason section chief Sheila Chivers, 55, secretly pocketed ever larger sums. She bought jewellery, clothes and invested in double glazing and a new bathroom.

Southwark crown court heard Chivers graduated from an initial "test" theft of £800 to an £18,000 "milking" in the weeks before Christmas. An office trainee later found a big hole in the accounts.

When confronted, Chivers's refusal to confess resulted in her cash office colleagues being suspended. The mother-of-two of Mitcham, Surrey, was convicted of 10 counts of theft between July 2005 and May 2006.