the Supreme Court trial of a former hotel employee accused of stealing more than $36,000 from her employers.

Four out of 12 jurors stood up when asked if they knew or were related to the defendant, Joanne Elizabeth Fubler, 33, charged with 13 counts of stealing and one of forgery.

One man claimed he was a fellow employee of the accused. Another juror said she was a good friend of the family. A third said she attended the same church and would be uncomfortable sitting on the jury.

And a replacement juror was also excused from the case when he admitted he was friends with the defendant's brother.

Mr. Julian Hall, defending, objected to the way the jurors had been asked if they knew Fubler only after the defence had used its three objections.

He added it was going too far to ask jurors, not only if they were blood relations or fellow employees, but if they had any knowledge of the accused.

"There is something wrong with the process,'' he said. "In this small community we are all expected to be familiar with someone.

"For example, they would never get a jury to try me because everyone in the community knows me,'' he said.

Mr. Peter DeJulio opened the Crown's case by warning jurors that evidence in the case could be tedious.

Fubler, who worked for Horizons Limited as an accounts clerk between 1985 and 1992 was employed to collect Bank of Butterfield bank bags from the company's four hotels and guest cottages, Waterloo House, Newstead, Coral Beach Club and Horizons Cottages and deliver them to the bank.

It is alleged Fubler took money from the bags containing cheques and cash in Bermudian and US currencies on 13 occasions between October 1988 and July 1992 and prepared new deposit slips.

In November 1988 she allegedly forged a Bank of Butterfield document for $3,589.82 to the Horizons account.

"Eventually things caught up with her,'' Mr. DeJulio said. "There were discrepancies between the amounts shown by head office and at the individual hotels.'' General Manager of Horizons Limited, Mr. George Wardman was the first to take the witness stand yesterday.

He said discrepancies in the company's cash control account came to light in 1990.

"We had less money than our records showed,'' he said. "We spent a lot of time pursuing the discrepancies from the hotels' perspective believing that it was an error in our guest account.'' The company launched an internal investigation which culminated in a Police investigation a year later.

Under cross-examination, Wardman admitted he did not directly supervise the accused and had little knowledge of her daily routine.

He also admitted he did not know the precise workings of deposit procedures or the extent to which Fubler was trained.

But he said: "I would expect an employee after five years to be adequately trained.'' The case continues today with the Hon. Mr. Justice Meerabux presiding.