Former Spar manager who stole £9,450 sentenced

Stuart Johnston took the money over a three-month period, Douglas Courthouse heard

A former Spar store manager has been sentenced for stealing £9,450 from his employer.

Stuart Johnston, who was responsible for banking the Spar shop in Ramsey's cash earnings at the post office, stole the money between 1 May and 29 July 2022.

Bosses had grown suspicious of Johnston after noticing money was missing and, after a search of his car uncovered £8,550 in cash, he was arrested on 1 August that year.

The 56-year-old was handed a 12 month sentence suspended for 18 months at Douglas Courthouse.

While the £8,550 found in the car was recovered by police, Johnston admitted that he had spent a further £900 when he pleaded guilty to theft in February 2025.

Stuart Johnston was sentenced at Douglas Courthouse earlier

The court heard that Spar was using a new system at the time of the offending, following a cyber attack in 2021, and the company was unable to verify the transactions online.

The store's more senior general manager would instead manually ensure that the money deposited matched the money declared, the court heard.

The general manager had grown suspicious of Johnston and an investigation was launched which found a large sum of money was missing and banking slips were missing.

Johnston was called into a meeting on 1 August where he denied taking any of the money and said he did not know where the missing slips were.

He was suspended from his role and arrested later that day.

Sentencing him, Deemster Cook said he was prepared to suspend the sentence to help him avoid losing his employment and accommodation and continue to address issues with gambling and alcohol.

"You had been until then a hardworking, honest man", he said.

But the deemster cautioned Johnston: "Do not think you are getting away with it, you are not."

Johnston was also ordered to pay £900 in compensation.