A supermarket cashier who pocketed money left behind by a mugger who attacked her on the way to bank store takings at a local post office has been cleared of theft.

Claire John, 31, was carrying four bags containing up to £12,000 in work takings when she was attacked by a mugger in November last year.

When he fled without the full amount she picked up two bags containing several thousands pounds and reported the attack to the police.

A jury at Swansea Crown Court on Thursday December 11 heard that John forgot to give in one of the bags containing £2,900 and only later discovered it in her clothes.

She panicked after finding the cash and feared nobody would believe that it was a mistake on her part, the jury heard.

John, from the village of Hakin, in Pembrokeshire, was working for the CKs supermarket chain in Milford Haven at the time.

She was on trial accused of a single charge of theft connected to the cash.

The jury found her not guilty of theft after hearing that she had hidden the bag of cash under a stone in her garden.

It was discovered a week after the mugging when her nextdoor neighbour's dog dug it up.

Stephen Rees, prosecuting, had told the court the neighbour found wads of cash when she went out her garden to clean up what she thought was litter.

"To her astonishment in the middle of her garden she saw a large quantity of cash in £20, £10 ad £5 notes, strewn about the garden, that she gathered up," he told the court.

John was arrested and charged with theft but insisted throughout that she had never intended to spend the money.

She told police in interview that she wished that she had burned it.

The jury at Swansea Crown Court took less than one hour to find her not guilty.