A 19-YEAR-OLD sales assistant stole £300 from the golf shop where he worked, a jury heard yesterday.

Daniel Walker, of Meadowside, Abingdon, a former assistant at the shop at Hadden Hill Golf Club, near Didcot, denies seven charges of theft.

Oxford Crown Court heard Walker started working at the club in 2005.

He denies stealing the money between August 2006 and February 2007.

Michael Morley, the club's managing director, said Walker was taken on as a shop assistant with a view to later becoming a trainee golf professional.

Mr Morley said he had become suspicious in early 2007, when he noticed differences between the takings and the number of range tokens.

He said: "There was a serious discrepancy between the amount of tokens that had gone into the machine and the till takings.

"There was an occasion when I walked across and found somebody who was in the shop and had been to the counter with a token. I went back five minutes later and it still had not been rung in.

"I asked Mr Walker why it had not been rung in and he said he had forgotten. There seemed to be a lot of cars in the car park for what our takings were.

"It was apparent money was being taken from customers, but not being rung in."

Mr Morley used CCTV to monitor staff after suspecting money was going missing.

The trial continues.