A crafty worker smuggled thousands of pounds out of a cash handling depot by hiding it in chocolate bar wrappers.

Peter Mills would take a break and have a Kit Kat. After eating the wafer biscuit bar, he slipped £50 notes into the wrapper and hid it in his trouser pocket.

His employers at Vaultex Ltd - owned by the major clearing banks - became suspicious and in May last year, monitored CCTV cameras at the depot in Tonbridge.

The head of security discovered that over 50 days there were 97 instances of stealing using the same modus operandi.

When police went to the 67-year-old grandfather’s home, they found that he and his wife were having £40,000 worth of renovations carried out - paid for in cash.

Prosecutor Mary Jacobson said bank statements revealed £30,000 in cash had been paid in over a four-month period.

Mills, of Burma Way, Chatham, was originally accused of stealing almost £80,000 but the final figure accepted was £20,350.

He admitted four offences of theft and was jailed for 21 months after a judge told him he had “fallen far” from a high position and had to take the consequences.

"He surreptitiously put a bundle of notes into the (Kit Kat) wrapper. He would go off for a break and hide the wrapper in his trouser pocket before leaving the room..." - Prosecutor Mary Jacobson

Mills started work in 2008 at the depot in Vale Road - scene of the former Securitas base which was the target of the biggest cash robbery in British history involving £53 million.

Since 2012 he was employed as a cash reconciliation processor earning £12,000 a year.

Miss Jacobson said the suspicions were raised because Mills had a higher “discrepancy rate” than expected when he dealt with cash which was indicative of theft.

CCTV footage showed him putting £50 notes in his desk drawer along with an empty Kit Kat wrapper.

“He then surreptitiously put a bundle of notes into the wrapper,” Miss Jacobson told Maidstone Crown Court. “He would go off for a break and hide the wrapper in his trouser pocket before leaving the room.

“He would secrete it to remove it from the building at the end of the shift. What was seen was a very consistent pattern of that being performed.”

When Mills was asked to turn out his pockets he put a Kit Kat wrapper on the table and tried to press it down so that the notes were not visible.

He claimed: “I don’t know how they got there.” Several empty wrappers were recovered from his locker.

Mills, who worked for Securicor for 14 years, confirmed he was paying his builder in cash but would not say where it came from.

Judge Jeremy Carey said the £79,188 originally alleged was a calculation and it became four charges on “hard evidence” from CCTV.

“This was very serious offending,” he told Mills. “You intended by your subterfuge that in any surveillance you would not be detected.

“There is a very unattractive feature because you have done everything you can to reduce your culpability. It is said you did so because you were ashamed of what you had done.”

The judge said he had heard nothing to persuade him that Mills and his wife were in a dire financial situation.

“You were tempted and you succumbed, and that puts a very different complexion on this case,” he added.

“This case is far too serious for there to be anything other than immediate custody.”

After the hearing, Detective Constable Ally Morgan said: "Mills thought by concealing the cash with empty KitKat wrappers, that if he was caught he could claim it was all just an innocent mistake.

"However, when CCTV was reviewed Mills was clearly seen stealing money two to three times a day, using exactly the same method. He was taking small amounts every single day.

"When we initially charged Mills it was in relation to offences stretching back as far as January 2013. He has pleaded guilty this week to offences committed from February 2014, those which the court were able to prove with CCTV.

"Rest assured we will be using the Proceeds of Crime Act to try and claw back every single penny that Mills has derived from his crimes."