A Thameslink shuttle bus driver has appeared in court accused of stealing £38,000 from the company in fares, the BBC has reported.
Louise Egan, 47, has been charged with two counts of theft – a combined total of £38,258 – from her employer, Govia Thameslink Railway, to which she plead not guilty.
Louise drove the shuttle service between London Luton Airport and Luton Airport Parkway railway station, and it’s alleged she stole the money between April 2016 and July 2017 by keeping a share of customers’ fares for herself.
During the hearing at Luton Crown Court, prosecutor Daniel Wright said that Govia Thameslink analyst Nikki Hill noticed the discrepancies while carrying out a review of the service’s takings in June 2016.
Following a day’s work on the Thameslink service, drivers finish their shift by putting fare money into a bag along with a receipt showing the total takings; this bag is subsequently sealed and deposited in a safe.
Nikki explained that, after suspicions were raised about Louise, she and her colleagues examined the bags she’d deposited in the safe.
They found that £706 had been taken in just five days.
The prosecutor said that the British Transport Police noted Louise was making “large cash deposits, sometimes up to £2,000,” which ceased once she had been dismissed from her driving role.
