A woman who stole the Premier's debit card information and used it to buy pizzas has been handed a suspended prison sentence.

Kim Dean, 20, abused her position as a cashier at the Fairmont Southampton to steal Dr. Ewart Brown's Citibank Mastercard number.

She used it to order $32.50 worth of pizza from the Upper Crust restaurant on April 14, then again to buy $23.50 worth on April 25.

She pleaded guilty during a previous court appearance to two counts of obtaining property by deception and presented herself to Senior Magistrate Archibald Warner for sentencing yesterday.

According to documents summarising the evidence for the prosecution, Dr. Brown received his bank statement on April 28 and noticed two transactions with Upper Crust that he'd not made.

He reported the matter to the Police, and an investigation commenced. Dean was arrested at her home in Khyber Heights Lane, Warwick, on May 19. When she was interviewed, she admitted using Dr. Brown's debit card number to order pizza. When the food arrived, she signed the card slip with an illegible signature.

She explained that her hotel job involved taking phone orders for services within the hotel from persons calling nationally and internationally which is how she obtained the debit card details.

She claimed she did not know it was Dr. Brown's information that she'd stolen.

Mr. Warner told her yesterday: "The amounts are small amounts but the circumstances are extremely distressing in that you had a job, as I understand it, a responsible job, and you took it upon yourself to steal the people's documentation, took it home, then used it to purchase your snacks."

Dean came up with a number of apparently contradictory explanations for the circumstances of the offence. During a lengthy and tearful address to the magistrate, she variously claimed that she did not intend to steal the information, that she had taken it home for safekeeping and that she had accidentally taken it home.

Dean went on to tell the magistrate that she is a "trustworthy person" and that her mom who was present in court could explain.

The magistrate replied: "What's this got to do with your mother? She doesn't work at the Southampton Princess hotel....this is not poor judgement, this is blatant theft and dishonesty."

Mr. Warner said a pre-sentence report writer "has got a nerve saying you should be given a conditional discharge" and chided Dean: "You don't seem to understand the gravity of what you did."

She replied: "I do your honour. What I've done is very serious," and apologised to Dr. Brown and her employer.

A pre-sentence report stated that Dean felt "more comfortable" committing the offence because a friend had done it before and got away with it. However, she insisted in court that she never admitted such a thing.

"I don't know," said Mr. Warner. "Clearly you are lying though your teeth about this situation and you're continuing to lie." He said he was tempted to send her to prison, but in the end handed her a three-month prison sentence suspended for two years which means she won't go to jail unless she commits another crime in the next two years.

He also ordered that she spend two years on probation, and be offered any rehabilitation programmes that she needs.

Asked for comment afterwards, Dr. Brown's press secretary Glenn Jones said: "For obvious reasons the Premier considers this a private matter and will not discuss it publicly. However, he offers his appreciation to the members of the Police Service and the justice system who exhibited the highest levels of professionalism throughout this process."

Norman Mastalir, managing director, Fairmont Hotels & Resorts Bermuda, said: "Fairmont continues to have very strict policies and procedures on the hiring of all colleagues who handle confidential information. Full police screenings are carried out on all such employees. In addition Fairmont complies with all generally accepted accounting policies and procedures for the hotel industry including the security of guests' confidential information.

"Employees who handle such information are closely supervised and audited on a regular basis through mystery shopper programmes and test calls. We are very sorry that all of these precautions were not enough to prevent this particular incident."