A pregnant mother-of-four yesterday received a suspended prison sentence for stealing at least $61,000 from her employer

Lakeisha Brangman, 35, admitted taking the money while employed as a cashier at Robinson's Marina in Sandys.

Now pregnant with her fifth child, the single mother told the court she took the cash to feed her children, aged 16, 14, 7 and 2.

The Crown told the court the Warwick resident had used some of the stolen money to pay her cell phone bills, rent and nights out on the town.

At Brangman's original court appearance prosecutor Cindy Clarke explained Robinson's Marina comprises of a gas station and a convenience store that sells expensive marine batteries.

She said Brangman processed fictitious cash returns for the batteries, pretended she had repaid the cash to the customer and then took it out of the till.

The company bookkeeper uncovered the thefts when she was compiling year-end financial reports. She found Brangman had processed 163 cash returns for batteries between October 19, 2007 and February 26, 2009 a total of $61,046.

She was registered on the system as cashier number six, but Ms Clarke explained: "Upon analysing the cash returns made using the other cashiers' register numbers, the bookkeeper discovered that there were a further 77 of these suspicious cash returns to a total value of $29,440 during the same period.

"These transactions were all performed on days when Lakeisha Brangman was working and all around her shift changeover time, or when she was covering for that other cashier."

Brangman was summoned to the manager's office on March 28 ,2009 and confronted over the theft by managing director Malcolm Swan and assistant manager Kristy Roberts.

"During the meeting, Brangman freely admitted processing fictitious cash returns and stealing cash from the register for some time. She was immediately suspended from her duties and her employment at Robinson's Marina was subsequently terminated," said Ms Clarke.

Brangman admitted to the thefts when she was interviewed by the Police.

Senior Magistrate Archibald Warner handed Brangman a two-year prison sentence, suspended for 18 months. She was represented by lawyer Graveney Bannister.