A man has been jailed for seven months after admitting stealing £11,028.14 the Greenhithe restaurant he worked at.

Klestor Nikolla, 29, of Whitefields Road, Waltham Cross, stole the cash from Wahaca Mexican Market Eating between May 14 2012 and March 18 2013.

Nikolla, who was the assistant manager, would delete cash transactions from the records and take the cash from the till for his own pocket.

He also waited for the other staff to go home so he could reopen the till in their names and refund items to pocket the cash.

However, the restaurant’s computer system tracked these transactions, leading to Nikolla’s conviction.

Following his arrest on October 29 last year, detectives investigated the allegations and on January 17 this year, Nikolla was charged with theft by employee and 11 charges of false accounting.

He pleaded guilty when he appeared at Maidstone Crown Court on May 29 and was handed his sentence the same day.

He was also ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £100.

DC Roger Harris, investigating officer at Kent Police, said: "Nikolla took advantage of his position of trust and made sure he worked the last shift of the day so he could steal from the till when everyone else had gone home.

"The crime was committed over the space of a year and we worked closely with the shop to secure evidence to ensure Nikolla would be brought to justice before the court."