Braddan Kirk Hartley fined, ordered to pay back former employer for stealing alcoholic drinks on the job

A former Bunbury bartender has been fined for stealing hundreds of dollars worth of alcohol by drinking on the job and ordered to pay back the value of the stolen drinks to his former employer. Braddan Kirk Hartley, 33, appeared in Bunbury Magistrate’s Court on Thursday where he was fined $2500 after pleading guilty to a charge of stealing as a servant. The court was told between April 24 and July 7 this year, Hartley had been working at Froth Craft Bunbrewery on a casual basis, where on numerous occasions he poured and consumed drinks during working hours, without consent or permission to do so, and without making any effort to pay for the drinks. Hartley was observed stealing a drink by a manager, who then reviewed CCTV footage and found 35 incidents in total. Hartley was arrested several weeks later and made full admissions of the offending to police, telling officers in an interview he was dealing with a drinking problem at the time. After initially disputing that the value of the drinks he stole while working was $2300 during a previous court appearance, it was later agreed between Hartley and the prosecution that the value of the drinks was instead $900. Hartley’s duty counsel submitted that he had suffered a relapse in his alcohol addiction at the time of offending and had since taken steps to address that addiction. Before handing down the $2500 fine, Magistrate Michelle Harries told Hartley his offending was a “repeated breach of trust” and stealing as a servant offending could be hard to detect. Along with the fine, Hartley was ordered to pay court costs and a restitution fee of $900, that would eventually be sent back to Froth Craft Bunbrewery.