A SHOP worker who stole more than £9,000 from her employer has walked free from court — having paid back just £500.

Her former employer, Ravi Jhangiani, has branded the sentence as 'disgraceful'.

Julie Edgar, who arrived at Plymouth Crown Court carrying a suitcase in preparation for going to jail, stole the cash from the Spar store in Tavistock over a seven-month period. The court previously heard she had spent it all on her four grown-up daughters.

Judge Graham Cottle deferred sentence last week for Edgar to try to get back some of the cash from the women.

But the court heard last week that she had none of the money. All the 53-year-old could offer was £500 she borrowed from her partner's mother.

The court heard Edgar spent the money she stole on her daughters, buying a pram, clothes and paying the deposit on a flat for her student daughter. The young women all believed their mother had taken out loans to support them.

Ordering her to pay the £500 she had secured and sentencing her to a suspended prison sentence of nine months, Judge Cottle told Edgar, of Maynard Park, Bere Alston: 'This was not a particularly sophisticated series of thefts because it was bound to be discovered.

'There is no evidence you lived any sort of lavish lifestyle as a result of your thieving. There is nobody with whom you are in any way connected who can help you out.

'You're in receipt of disability living allowance. It's not possible to make a compensation order which can be met in two years, as it has to be.

'And so the loser remains the loser.'

After the case, Mr Jhangiani said: 'It's disgraceful. I did not expect that. I expected her to go to jail.

'The £500 won't even make a dent in the money she stole from us.

'We are very, very upset about this. I feel what's happened is totally disgraceful and I am not going to let it rest there.'

Mr Jhangiani said he has contacted West Devon MP Geoffrey Cox about the sentence.

'What gets me is what sort of message does this send out to staff, not just my staff but any employees?'

Some workers had to commute to Tavistock from the West Hoe branch to cover for Edgar because there was no money to hire a replacement, he said.

Mr Jhangiani, who owns both Spar shops, added: 'We feel she has let us down. We treated her more like a member of the family than a member of staff.'

At an earlier court hearing, Judge Cottle was told staff had missed out on pay rises because the money had been stolen.

Edgar made her money by ringing lower amounts on the till when people were paying their utility bills and pocketed the difference.