A manager at the St John’s precinct branch of Aldi was jailed after stealing £84,000 in takings.
Louise Mulholland, 35, drove around in “a flash sports car” and carried wads of stolen cash in her handbag before she was finally caught out.
Cocaine addict Mulholland, of Pleasant Street, Bootle, was found guilty of two counts of theft after a Liverpool Crown Court trial.
Andrew Ford, prosecuting, said Mulholland was manager at the Aldi store in St John’s precinct, Liverpool city centre, “a few hundred yards from here”.
He said in April 2012 records showed that there should have been two weeks takings in the safe of between £80,000 - £90,000 but she began banking the takings a week in arrears and “exploited that accounting vulnerability”.
Over the following months she ‘doctored’ details on the deposit slips so that the breakdown of notes was accurate and to hide the money she had taken.
Mr Ford said that there was evidence that she “was flash with cash", had a sports car and cash wads in bank bands in her handbag. On nights out with colleagues she was always keen to buy the drinks and regularly withdrew large sums from cash points.
She was earning £40,000 and lived with her parents rent free.
He added: “She lost control of proper responsibility for money and her colleagues which is what Class A drugs can do.”
Mulholland denied dishonesty and blamed sloppy procedures and the computer system. It was only after the trial she confessed to a probation officer about her cocaine addiction.
The court heard that since the offences she had received a 12 week suspended jail sentence for doctoring a provisional driving licence and passport which was discovered after she was stopped for driving erratically.
Sentencing her Judge Thomas Teague, QC, said: “You are an extremely capable, highly intelligent woman of very considerable ability. If you had not resorted to dishonesty you might have gone far in the retail business.
“Unfortunately you became reckless, taking drink and drugs and went out of control.”
Jailing her for two-and-a-half years, he added: “You were driving around in a fairly flash sports car and waving large sums of money around, almost literally.”