sentence yesterday for theft.

Annette Stewart, 45, of St. George's, pleaded guilty to stealing $6,000 from store vaults.

Senior Magistrate Will Francis sentenced the Englishwoman after hearing psychiatric and social inquiry reports.

Stewart had been responsible for collecting cash boxes from A.S. Cooper's various departments while employed with Island Wide Security. She also had access to the store's vault.

At an earlier Magistrates' Court hearing, prosecutor Sgt. Phil Taylor said Stewart collected the day's cash on April 6, 1996, but once inside the vault hid $6,000 in her brassiere.

The next day she returned to England where she converted funds to Sterling and distributed it to various church charities.

She later confessed the crime to her husband and returned to Bermuda. On January 7 she told her story to Police.