The trial of a former Ultramar Corner Store employee charged in connection with the theft of almost $4,000 worth of lottery tickets from her employer heard she was the only person in the store when the tickets were activated.
Jessica Lynn Cahill, 26, was assistant manager of the store on St. Peters Road when the break-open tickets were alleged to have been stolen.
Testimony given Tuesday in Charlottetown by John James Young, who served as manager of the store at the time of the theft, said Cahill was the only person working in the store when the tickets were activated.
Activation of tickets is required before they can be sold or cashed in.
Young told the court that the day he noticed a number of the break-open tickets stored in a box in the office had been taken, he called the Atlantic Lottery Corporation in Moncton. They told him the tickets from that box had been activated, the date and time they were activated and that a number of winning tickets from that box had already been cashed in.
When he checked the date and time of activation, Cahill was the only employee working in the store.
Cahill had the ability to activate the tickets, he said.
Looking at video from the store on the day the tickets were activated, Jan. 26, 2012, Young identified Cahill as the person behind the counter standing at the lottery terminal.
There were a limited number of tasks she could have been performing at the terminal, he indicated.
He said Cahill appeared to be punching numbers into it.
Young said as an employee of the store, she was prohibited from purchasing or cashing in lottery tickets for herself. She could only sell, verify or cash in tickets for others.
There were no customers in the store at the time the stolen tickets were activated.
The tickets in question had been kept in the manager’s office and not activated for sale because the box they were in had become soiled when there was a sewer backup into the store. They remained in the office pending resolution of the situation with the Atlantic Lottery Corporation.
Young testified that new surveillance equipment was installed in the store after some initial thefts took place and that one camera had been installed in the manager’s office. That camera captured Cahill in the office doing drugs on more than one occasion.
Other witnesses who testified Tuesday included co-workers of Cahill. They testified as to who had access to the manager’s office and who had the ability to activate tickets like those that were allegedly stolen by Cahill.
Cahill has already pleaded guilty to stealing money from that same Ultramar. The case resumes March 26.
