A supermarket manager has been given a suspended jail sentence after pinching thousands of pounds from his employer in order to “buy friends”.

Adam Platt, 24, formerly of Barton Mill Road, Canterbury, and now living in Surrey, worked at the Sainsbury’s Local store in Whitstable as deputy manager for almost two years from September 2015.

At one stage he was stealing between £200 to £500 a week from his employer, Canterbury Crown Court heard.

It was alleged he admitted the crime to a colleague on a drunken night out – writing the figure of £29,000 on a beer mat and saying the crime was “real easy”.

However, Platt told a judge at Canterbury Crown Court he was only responsible for up to £18,000.

Last month, he was given an 18-month jail sentence suspended for two years – and ordered to repay £12,000 to the store at £500 a month.

His barrister Eve George told the court that Platt was “extremely ashamed by his actions”.

She added: “He was stealing to buy friends and knows he needs help with his low self-esteem.”

Platt explained to the judge how he cooked the books to disguise the losses, which it was alleged were just under £29,000.

A fellow employee had claimed he been talking about the thefts in a pub and wrote £29,000 on a piece of paper. But she told the judge she was drunk at the time and may have misunderstood what Platt was discussing.

The jobless Platt claimed he was talking about the missing money and had revealed the extent of the supermarket’s losses on an iPhone and not a piece of paper or beer mat as others had claimed.

Ms George said Platt’s father and brother had offered him work so he could start repaying the money.

Judge Rupert Lowe told him he had been in a job with a high degree of trust and the stealing had continued for a long time.

Platt pleaded guilty to stealing from Sainsbury’s from September 2015 until June last year. He said he had been taking between £200 to £500 a week and believed the total amount to be between £16,000 and £18,000. He also admitted falsifying records to cover the thefts.