Mansfield mum sacked with husband for stealing mobile phone from workplace

Police were called to Dixons Carphone Distribution Centre, in Winthorpe, at 3am on December 29, said prosecutor Andrew Conboy.

Florentina Cantar helped herself to the phone from the returns department and hid it in her lunch box.

The court heard items in the returns department would usually not be re-sold and instead stripped for parts.

Vicky Clarson, mitigating, said Cantar, of previous good character, deserved full credit for her early guilty plea and the warehouse suffered no financial loss.

"She had been working for Dixons through an agency since September,” she said. “Temptation, it seems, got the better of her on this occasion.

"She and her husband were both dismissed from the warehouse. They have since been looking for alternative employment. At the moment they have no income.

"Although it was a breach of trust because she was an employer, clearly the family has been punished already. It is something that will hang over her for some time."

The presiding magistrate told her: "It was a stupid thing to do - you must have known they wouldn't let you get away with it that easily.

"Because of that act you seriously affected your family. We don't expect to see you again."

Cantar, aged 37, of George Street, Mansfield Woodhouse, admitted theft when she appeared at Mansfield Magistrates Court, on Tuesday.

She received a 12-month conditional discharge and was ordered to pay a £26 surcharge.