Shoplifting mum is banned from town

10:41am Thursday 7th August 2008

A serial shoplifter from Keighley - trying to kick her heroin habit so she could care full-time for her son - has been banned from Skipton after being arrested in the town at the weekend.

Magistrates at Harrogate heard on Monday how Janine Richardson, a 26-year-old mother of two from West Bank Rise, had been on bail when she stole irons and tubes of hair removal cream from Morrisons supermarket, in Skipton, on Saturday.

Prosecutor Amanda De Winter said Richardson had been bailed after stealing perfume from Boots, in Skipton, on June 28, with both offences coming while she was subject to a 12-month community order imposed in December for theft.

Richardson pleaded guilty to two counts of shoplifting.

Mrs De Winter said at the time she targeted Boots's perfumes counter, staff had put security tags on all the bottles in a bid to identify thieves after several had gone missing.

She said staff had seen Richardson behaving suspiciously. When she left a security tag alarm sounded and investigations showed a number of packages had been tampered with.

While CCTV footage was being checked Richardson re-entered the store carrying a bag but when she was asked what was in it she denied it belonged to her.

"It is not my bag,'' she said. "I just found it and was going to hand it in.'' Mrs De Winter said a number of packages of perfume were in the bag and Richardson had been arrested and bailed.

On Saturday she had been spotted by staff at Morrisons and recognised as someone they had been monitoring for some time. She had been followed around the store and when she spotted the tail she walked out.

But when she doubled back she was stopped by three members of staff and stolen property worth £101.57 was found in her bag.

In mitigation, Mo Hussein said Richardson had struggled with a heroin addiction for years, having first been offered the drug by a so-called friend more than a decade ago while she was grieving over the death of her partner and father of her first child in an accident.

Mr Hussein said Richardson had last been to custody at her own request while pregnant for the second time because she wanted to be clean when the baby was born.

Her parents now had care of her son but she had regular access to him.

She wants to move towards having him permanently, so there is motivation for her to end her heroin usage,'' he said.

Mr Hussein said Richardson's community order included a drug rehabilitation requirement which was having varying success. Although breach proceedings were pending there had been a negative drugs test after her arrest.

Presiding magistrate Jaki Moorhouse ordered probation reports and bailed Richardson to appear before Skipton Magistrates for sentence on Wednesday, August 27, telling her that in the meantime she had to stay out of the town.