Thirsty lodger who helped himself to booze from Mansfield pub in early hours thought it could go on his tab
A thirsty lodger who helped himself to booze from behind the bar of a Mansfield pub in the early hours of the morning thought it would be covered by his tab, a court heard.
Christopher Peters was captured on CCTV as he took five small bottles of wine from the fridge in the Bridge Tavern at 3.58am on November 12 last year, said Catherine Wilson, prosecuting.
"He returned at 10.47am and took a bottle of rum,” she added. “He thought the landlord wouldn’t mind him taking it.
"Clearly, that is different to what the landlord thought.”
Peters told police, “I know it doesn’t look good and it looks like I’m nicking it,” and claimed he was allowed to run up a £500 tab which he paid off at the end of every month.
“It was a one-off situation, he was tempted and he was drinking too much,” Vicky Clarson, mitigating, said.
The court heard Peters had been in a relationship with a barmaid who lived at the pub but this ended shortly before the thefts occurred.
“He wasn't in a good place at the time and he was drinking more than he should have been,” she added.
She said the dad-of-four has cut his drinking down and paid for the wine but disputed the cost of the rum.
“He is disappointed to be before the court today and apologises to the landlord,” said Ms Clarson. “He deserves full credit for his guilty plea.”
Peters, 43, of Jasmin Close, Shirebrook, admitted theft by finding when he appeared at Mansfield Magistrates Court on Tuesday, March 17.
He was fined £533, with £50 compensation, a £213 surcharge and £85 costs.