A manager at an exchange currency company in Tesco has been jailed after stealing over £70,000 in cash from the safe on Christmas Eve - then going on the run in the US for five months.
David Aspden, 34, had encouraged other members of staff at Travelex to go home to spend time with their family and friends around the festive period, then filled Bags for Life full of the money.
He was seen on CCTV in the store in Middleton emptying the cash from the safe, then going shopping around Tesco, before returning to collect the bags and leaving, Manchester Minshull Street heard.
Aspden, of no fixed abode, booked a flight two days later, on Boxing Day 2018, to the United States, where he disposed of £30,000 then spent the rest.