An assistant manager at the Somerset Marketplace has been charged with stealing several thousand dollars in currency, cheques and gift certificates from his employer.

David Scott, of Leacraft Hill, Southampton, was remanded into custody today by Senior Magistrate Archibald Warner after he denied the charges.

Police were able to recover the stolen money when they arrested Mr Scott in the early hours of Sunday morning, when they found him with his bags packed as if he was about to leave the Island, prosecutor Karen King told Magistrates’ Court.

Ms King said that around 9.30pm on Saturday, Mr Scott was seen at the store by another assistant manager, Dahita Gittens, who was surprised to see him as he was supposed to be on vacation and was not scheduled to return to work until Monday.

Mr Scott is said by Ms Gittens to have remained at the store “acting suspiciously” and inquiring about sales totals for the day.

After Ms Gittens had secured the daily sales in the office safe around 10.30pm, Mr Scott said he would remain behind to “help the butcher clean up.” Ms Gittens found this suspicious, said Ms King, because Mr Scott had never assisted in such a way before.

Ms Gittens is then said have returned to the store around 2am the following morning, and immediately reviewed the CCTV footage from the day before.

Ms Gittens observed Mr Scott immediately entering the office after she had left the premises, where he took a number of bank bags from the safe and placed them into brown paper bags.

After examining the safe further, Ms Gittens noted that seven HSBC money bags had been taken, which contained the day’s sales. An audit was then conducted and it was found that a total of $18,551.58 had been removed in currency and cheques.

Mr Scott has been remanded into custody and will appear for mention on May 20.