A WAREHOUSE boss who plundered six pallet loads of goods from work has walked free from court. Swindon Crown Court was told Geoffrey Moreton stole the books, CDs and other items valued at more than £13,000 from Veritis Fulfilment where he had worked for 23 years.

But despite insisting that the value of what he stole was a fraction of what the company claimed the 58-year-old escaped being jailed.

Claire Marlow, prosecuting, said that Moreton's Blagrove based employers acted as a distribution for Readers Digest among other com-panies.

She said that early last year staff noticed three pallets loaded with stock close to the dispatch area and after a few days a further three were added.

On March 15 it was noticed that the pallets had gone and after CCTV had been checked Moreton was seen to move them with a forklift truck.

Checks with security showed that he said there would be a late pick up from the depot and at 4.30pm, half an hour after he was supposed to have finished work, he loaded the pallets on to a van.

The goods then turned up for sale in a shop in Devon, and Moreton was arrested.

When he was questioned he denied having anything to do with the pallets of goods saying he simply loaded them on to a lorry as was his job.

However Moreton, of Feather Wood, Westlea, pleaded guilty to theft between February 13 and March 15 last year.

Miss Marlow said that after the contents of three of the pallets had been examined it was estimated that the total amount taken was worth £13,248.

Moreton insisted that he had only taken items worth abut £1,500 saying they were mostly scrap and would have been thrown away a claim refuted by Miss Marlow.

But after Miss Marlowe said that she could only definitely prove beyond reasonable doubt about £6,500 worth of goods Judge John McNaught said that the difference in value between that and what was accepted would not affect sentence.

Marcus Davey, defending, said his client had admitted what he had done when he appeared before magistrates.

He said Moreton, who lived with his wife and daughter who is in the final year of A levels, now had a new job but he would lose it if he was sent to prison.

Ordering that he do 100 hours community service the judge said "I want to make it clear to you that there was a real risk of you going to prison today.

"Employers are entitled to expect their staff to behave honestly and taking things from employers is a great breach of trust."

He also ordered him to pay £358.50 in costs and warned him that if he failed to do the community service he would probably be jailed.

Jamie Hill