Thief's sentence a 'joke' - store owners

File photo / NZ Herald

A former supermarket supervisor who stole nearly $100,000 from her employer and nearly drove them out of business has avoided a jail term, in a sentence described as "a joke" by the victims.

Janette Kemp, 47, was sentenced to eight months' home detention and ordered to pay reparation of $92,680 to New World Hawera when she appeared in Hawera District Court yesterday, the Taranaki Daily News reported.

Kemp pleaded guilty in July to charges of using a document to commit a crime and theft by a person in a special relationship.

She had swiped her supervisor's card at tills, logging on as different operators and "returning" products -- usually tobacco -- and the next day she would take the cash amount.

Kemp's lawyer Patrick Mooney said there had been underlying mental health issues which manifested in a significant gambling addiction. Kemp and her husband would have to sell their Wanganui house to pay the reparation.

The supermarket's owners, Rachel and Mike Clayton, said the theft was so crippling they came close to shutting the business.

"Where's the punishment?" Mrs Clayton said.

"The hell she's put us through, the worry and the strain. We would have hoped there was some imprisonment. I had thought home detention, but longer than that, that's a joke."

- NZPA