Anti-alcohol campaigner stole £6k to fund drinking habit

A woman in Poole, who campaigned for an alcohol-free zone in the town’s centre, has been found guilty of stealing £6,000 from her employer to fund her drink habit.

Linda Mundle became fed up with the problems that were caused in Poole’s town centre by drunks and drug addicts and campaigned for action.

She even started a petition, telling her local newspaper the Dorset Daily Echo: “It’s horrible antisocial behaviour.

“They’re squaring up to each other on the street – they’re drunk all day.”

But this week Mundle faced Bournemouth Crown Court to face charges of stealing £6,000 while working at Reel Time on Poole High Street.

Mundle admitted the theft, which occurred over an eight-year period, saying that she had “borrowed” the money in order to fund her drinking habit.

Defending, Robert Griffiths, said: “There was a culture of drinking; it was the alcohol which forced her to commit the offences.

“She was drinking heavily and borrowing money; alcohol isn’t cheap. She is not in a position to repay it.” He stressed that his client was a woman of previous good character.

Sentencing Mundle to four months’ imprisonment, suspended for a year, Judge John Harrow told her: “You were trusted and you broke that trust on a massive scale.”