Part of me personally would want to prove the point and make them drag out every fucking CCTV tape, cross reference shifts and go over the tills just to kind of show that I'd nothing to hide.

Ultimately you've gone against company policy by buying the drink but your certainly not guilty of helping yourself to £70 from the till. They can't prove it cos it didn't happen but your quite right, that element of doubt will still be there.

As far as references go...you'd be surprised at just how sloppy at lot of companies are. At your age just bang on a couple of personal references if asked. If you really must declare that you've worked at this shop (to prove you have relevant experience for example) they can only put in your reference statements of fact. Most companies only put dates of employment on these days cos they're afraid of getting sued.