Two grocery store employees escaped criminal convictions yesterday for stealing goods and falsifying accounts.

Serena Minors, 28, of Mullet Bay, St George's, and Lorena Richards, 19, of Devil's Hole, Smith's, admitted the offences at an earlier court appearance and were sentenced at Magistrates' Court yesterday.

The pair stole the goods from Harrington Hundreds, where they were both employed on the checkout.

During an earlier court appearance however, store owner Anthony Aguiar said Richards had "a good work ethic" and he believed she had been "led astray" by others.

Minors however, denied influencing Richards. She told the court: "I did not influence Lorena, she is old enough and she has a mind of her own."

Minors pleaded guilty to two charges of falsifying accounts and two of stealing groceries. Richards pleaded guilty to one count of stealing groceries and another of falsifying accounts.

The women were caught out by the in-store security cameras. Video footage revealed that in May, Minors rang up groceries worth $73.19 and was later seen leaving the store with the goods.

The camera then showed her returning to her cash register and voiding the transaction.

At a later date, she rang up groceries worth $53.23, left the store and returned later to void the transaction.

The cameras caught out Richards ringing up groceries in the same way. Both were subsequently arrested.

Yesterday, Senior Magistrate Archibald Warner said: "This was serious dishonesty by both of you, in that both of you were in a position of trust.

"This is a breach of trust and in the case of you, Miss Richards, the complainant said it was most distasteful for him because of the confidence he had in you."

However, Mr. Warner added: "Both of you clearly showed remorse and plead guilty to all of the offences at the earliest stage."

He added both had no previous convictions and Minors also had a child.

"The social inquiry report was not unkind to either of you. In the circumstances I think the appropriate way of dealing with this is probably with probation," said Mr. Warner.

"Because your risk of re-offending is very low I am not going to record a criminal conviction against you."

He placed Minors and Richards on probation for two years.