A BAKERY WORKER has lost her job after taking money from elderly customers who couldn't pay by card.
Megan Metcalfe was trying to get around her company's 'no cash' rule - to minimise the spread of coronavirus - by accepting cash, then paying at the till with her own card.
But when the bosses of Birds Bakery in Nottinghamshire found out, they gave Megan her marching orders - ending her 44-year stint at the bakery.
Megan insisted that she was only trying to help out a number of elderly customers who didn't own debit cards.
"I realise what I was doing was against company policy. But they had picked up the items and already gotten to the till ready to buy them," she told Nottinghamshire Live.
"There's no way I could let an elderly man or woman walk away telling them they could not buy it because they didn't have a card."
She stressed that company policy twisted her arm due to the fact that any stock handled by customers would have to be binned or cleaned if it isn't purchased.
Megan admitted that she took around £180 worth of cash payments in total, but ran them all up on the till and kept every receipt.
"I was just trying to do the right thing. I am really upset by it of course," she added.
"I worked at Birds for 44 years and 25 of them as manager.
"I was told I was endangering staff members' lives by doing what I did.
"I shouldn't have done it but I don't like to let people down and a lot of these customers depend on us, coming to us every day."
A petition has since been launched to get Ms Metcalfe reinstated.
Earlier this week, it was reported that the same bakery refused to serve a 94-year-old woman because she didn't have a card - reportedly describing her cash as "dirty".
