A servo worker was arrested stealing tens of thousands of dollars during an alleged two-year cash register raid, as her devastated boss reacts.
Peri Hortis, who runs the Saviges Road Fast & Ezy service station in the Gippsland region of Victoria, claims the 35-year-old woman stole more than $43,000 in cash between August 2022 and July 2024.
In CCTV footage taken above the cash register, the worker is seen counting $50 bills, looking to see if anyone was nearby and then nonchalantly pocketing the money.
Hortis claims the woman, who worked at his business for four years, had taken money from the till more than 100 times.
he said A current issue The woman was able to go unnoticed because she told him she was processing the cash as a lottery payment.
However, the penny dropped about six months ago when Mr Hortis’s accountant warned that “some things didn’t add up in my books”.
While analyzing his business records, he discovered there were scratch card payments of more than $700 in one day.
“For someone to make $700 worth of scratching posts in one day is a lot,” he said.
CCTV footage shows the woman counting $50 bills before pocketing the cash (pictured)
Peri Hortis, who employed the woman for more than four years, says it will take her at least a year to recover from the alleged theft of $43,000.
‘I looked at the transactions and videos from the two weeks I had and then realized I was doing it every other day.
‘I would have done it over 100 times and it was just over $43,000 in cash.
‘It’s a lot of money. I’m heartbroken.’
On another occasion, footage shows the woman scanning cigarettes and opening them before processing a payment for the value of the pack and drinks.
Hortis claimed that when he confronted her, she admitted to the alleged robbery.
‘She admitted it to me. “He said he had to pay for his daughters’ braces and he was going to return the money,” she said.
“I told her she’s fired, give me the keys to the store and you’ll leave.”
Hortis reported the woman’s alleged crimes to police on July 11, but says little has happened in the three months since then.
Fifteen days later, he pursued the senior agent on the case and asked him to sign some documents and return them to him, which he did in early August.
“They thought it was a safe investigation, but I haven’t heard back from them,” Mr. Hortis said.
Police say they interviewed the woman as part of an ongoing investigation.
Mr Hortis Saviges Road Fast & Ezy Service Station in Gippsland
Hortis said he had been generous to the woman, giving her $50 worth of gas each week and giving her a new iPhone for Christmas last year.
‘You become friends and family with (the staff). “They are not just a number,” he said.
The woman has since found a new job at a nearby supermarket, but denied her dishonesty when approached by A Current Affair.
Hortis said it would take at least a year to recover his losses.
“I really can’t employ someone full time until I replenish the income I would have paid someone else,” he said.
“The dishonesty, betrayal and lies are just pathetic.”
