Weeks after giving birth, a new mother had to say goodbye to her daughter Tuesday, when she was sentenced to a year behind bars for stealing tens of thousands of dollars from a local business.
Marcia Moreira had been head cashier at the Italian Centre Shop, located at 5028 104A Street – and in over three years, she took more than $60,000.
On Tuesday, she was handed a one year jail term.
“[It’s] really hard, really, really hard for me cause really, she was like a daughter to me,” Italian Centre Shop owner Teresa Spinelli said Tuesday. “I hired her mother, I hired her fiancée, we were very very close, it really hurts.”
According to court documents, Moreira cancelled customer’s electronic transactions, pocketing the money later – it’s believed she made it look like other cashiers were doing the cancellations.
The store owner said the case has changed the way business is done in the well-known grocery store chain.
Spinelli said she’s not concerned for Moreira, only the little baby left without a mother.
“I feel for the baby,” Spinelli said. “The baby’s not going to have her mother for 12 months or however long she’s in custody, and that’s the really sad part.”
Aside from the one year jail term, Judge Susan Richardson put a restitution order in place – for Moreira to begin paying back the money she pocketed.
With files from David Ewasuk
