THE assistant manager of an Italian restaurant who skipped the country with almost £4,000 of takings has been warned he faces prison.

York magistrates were told Paul Anthony Crawford, 29, snatched the entire weekend's takings from Bella Pasta, now known as Bella Italia, in Low Petergate, York.

Prosecutors said Crawford took £3,645 which was destined for the safe and instead stuffed the bank bags with blank slips of paper.

They also said the Irishman also cheated his girlfriend out of £2,500 by using her chequebook during his stay in York, before fleeing to Northern Ireland, via Spain.

Robert Galley, prosecuting, said earlier this month North Yorkshire police officers travelled to Crawford's home town of Lisburn, Northern Ireland, and brought him back in handcuffs.

His solicitor Harry Bayman said he had initially gone to Spain after leaving York in early summer 2003, but later returned to Northern Ireland to live with his parents.

Crawford will be sentenced at York Crown Court on August 15 for his crimes in England and on July 25 in Lisburn for stealing from his parents in the 1990s and taking a hire car in 1998 and not returning it.

Crawford, of Lisburn, pleaded guilty to theft and three deceptions in York and asked for more similar offences to be taken into consideration. York magistrates decided the case there was too serious for them.

Mr Galley said Crawford was made assistant manager of the restaurant in spring 2003 and was in charge of its takings when on duty. For a time during his York stay, he lived at York Youth Hostel and his girlfriend allowed him to store his belongings in her Gillygate flat. She gave him a key so he could get to them.

But unknown to her, he took her chequebook from the flat and used it to siphon funds from her bank account to a Halifax account in Lisburn.

For Crawford, Harry Bayman said the York offences came when he had financial difficulties and he had yet to receive a salary payment from the restaurant. Despite the offences against his parents, his father had stood surety in Lisburn for him to return to court there on July 25.

The court heard that Crawford has previous convictions for theft and deception in London and Glasgow and has been imprisoned in the past for stealing from his employer.

Updated: 10:11 Saturday, July 16, 2005