'I’m going to petrol bomb your house with your kids in'

Dawn Caswell then told another worker that she knew where she lived and threatened to petrol bomb her home – with her children in it.

The 52-year-old grandmother frequently interrupted her sentencing hearing at Bradford Crown Court, during which she appeared via video from HMP New Hall.

It prompted Recorder Miss Judy Dawson to warn that she would be muted if she continued.

Prosecutor Jessica Lister told the court how Caswell and an unidentified male accomplice stole from Farmfoods in Cavendish Street, Keighley, on December 15 last year.

Caswell, who walked with the aid of crutches, was confronted by staff who had seen her take chocolate worth between £12 and £20.

The theft had been caught on CCTV.

Caswell denied stealing anything but was blocked by one worker who asked her to return the goods and tried to grab her bag.

In the brief scuffle that followed, Caswell grabbed the woman by the neck.

Another worker intervened and also blocked Caswell from leaving.

Caswell responded by hitting her on the head with one of her crutches.

The court heard that Caswell was shouting and screaming, hurling racial abuse at a manager and threatening one woman with: “Don’t worry you f***ing slag, I know where you live, and I’m going to petrol bomb your house with your kids in.”

During her tirade the chocolate she had stolen fell onto the floor of the shop.

Caswell’s male accomplice was also confronted about items he had taken and returned them.

The court heard that Caswell, from Keighley, had 68 previous convictions for 146 offences, the vast majority of which were for theft and related offences plus multiple assaults on police officers and designated persons.

She had previously served a prison sentence for robbery.

Mitigating, Ella Embleton-Brown said Caswell was “very upset and very anxious” to leave prison to support her children, one of whom had recently had a baby – Caswell’s first grandchild.

She urged the court to be lenient and to give Caswell an opportunity to address her drug addiction through rehabilitation, adding that she had been drug-free during four months on remand.

Noting that Caswell had “an appalling record for shoplifting”, Recorder Dawson imposed an 18-month community order, 20 rehabilitation activity requirement days, and a nine-month drug rehabilitation requirement for the theft, assaults, racial abuse, and threat to damage, which she described as “an entirely impulsive offence”.

She told Caswell: “You want to be a grandma but unless you break this cycle of offending … you are going to be in and out of custody.

“I hope that you can utilise the help from probation to enable you to be the grandma that you want to be.

“Please take this opportunity otherwise you are going to spend the rest of your life struggling with drug addiction.

“I wish you the very best of luck.”