A garage cashier who stole almost £5,000 from the till has been jailed for four months.

John Pickering, 61, "frittered away" the cash on Ebay, Amazon and other internet sites, Chelmsford Crown Court heard yesterday.

Pickering, who admitted theft, worked at Mount Hill garage in Halstead.

The small independent petrol station and shop was struggling to survive when another employee noticed irregularities with Pickering's till rolls, Yvonne Ferns, prosecuting said.

She said: "She looked at the till rolls on October 30, 2006, and noticed there was £100 missing. She was going through all the rolls, and it was then that she became alerted to a lot of other transactions."

Between September 1, 2006 and November 30, 2006, voids and missing money correlated with shifts when Pickering, of Windmill Road, Halstead, was working, the court heard.

The stolen money came to £4,708.01 in total.

The former sales manager and private cab driver had an impeccable past, volunteering at the Tabor Centre in Braintree to help people with disabilities, the court heard.

He had also set up Friends', a website helping elderly people network, and was approved by internet company AOL as a community leader, Paul Strelitz, mitigating, added.

Mr Strelitz said bank statements showed £4,708.01 going into Pickering's bank account, then money going out to Amazon, Argos and Paypal, which internet auction site eBay uses.

He said: "There's no assumption that it was spent on some sort of Walter Mitty lifestyle."

Judge Peter Fenn said: "What I am having some difficulty understanding is why a man of this age with the background that we hear is exemplary should suddenly start stealing at the rate of over £1,000 a month from his employers, and the money go on everyday living."

He sentenced Pickering to four months in prison, and ordered compensation of £4,708.01 to be paid to the garage.