Over a six-month period 29-year-old Patrick Cleary, the manager of a petrol filling station and shop at Trerulefoot, stole a total of £25,700 Truro Crown Court heard.

'He regularly helped himself to cash at the end of the day's business,' revealed prosecutor Iain White.

When owner James Cook spoke to him about the accounts on December 2 last year Cleary handed him a typed apology for his offending, which he said was to pay his debts.

More on this in this week's Cornish Times.