A CASHIER has cleared her name after being accused of swapping dodgy £20 notes for genuine money at work.

Owner David Moffat confronted Sarah Jane Jackson at the Jet garage in Lawrence Street, York, after he found £200 in counterfeit notes in a canister used for putting takings in the safe, York Crown Court heard.

She denied having anything to do with it and left work at 7.50am, less than an hour into her shift.

“I was upset. I felt like he was accusing me. I stormed off because I didn’t want to be there any more.

“I didn’t want to be accused of something I hadn’t done,” she told the jury.

After viewing CCTV of the till area and hearing from both people, the jury acquitted Ms Jackson, 34, of Rose Tree Grove, New Earswick, of theft and passing counterfeit money. She had denied both charges.

She told the jury that money had been going missing and she had had money docked from her wages two weeks earlier when her till came up short.

On March 23 she had counted notes in a till and put £200 of notes into a canister. Prosecution barrister Bashir Ahmed played a CCTV recording showing Ms Jackson working behind the till.

He alleged it showed her putting £200 from the till in her pocket and substituting it with £200 in fake notes from a different pocket. She denied the allegation.

Ms Jackson said Mr Moffat had waved notes in her face, saying there was something wrong with them.

Mr Moffat told the jury he had asked her if she knew anything about the notes.