Asda, Enniskillen RMG98
A PREGNANT woman has been handed a suspended prison sentence after stealing over £100 worth of clothing and groceries from Asda and returning to the store later the same day wearing some of the clothes she had earlier stolen.
Caroline O’Donnell (20) of Drumawill Gardens in Enniskillen appeared before Enniskillen Magistrates Court on Monday charged with theft and obstructing police on September 14th last at Asda in Enniskillen.
The court heard that at 11.40am on the date in question, O’Donnell had been in the store in the company of two males with a trolley of clothes, food and nappies to the value of £101.52. O’Donnell went to the self-scan checkout and all of the items were bagged before she proceeded to pay for the goods using a bank card.
The court was told that the defendant made no attempt to enter a PIN when requested for payment and no receipt was issued for the goods.
CCTV footage showed O’Donnell re-entering the store at 4pm the same day in the company of one of the males she had earlier been with and wearing some of the clothing stolen on the previous occasion.
Police were called to the store and when confronted by officers, O’Donnell gave two false names. She also told them she had returned to Asda with the intention of paying for the goods but couldn’t as there wasn’t enough money in her bank account. When asked about the items taken earlier, O’Donnell admitted that she was wearing some of them and that the rest had been given away.
Defence solicitor Myles McManus said his client was the mother of one child and was expecting her second in September.
“She is very sorry for her actions and is willing to pay full compensation. It was a very foolish and unsophisticated act.”
Deputy District Judge Neil Rafferty disagreed with this statement and told Mr McManus that his client’s actions were “a really well-known method of shop-lifting”.
Addressing O’Donnell, the judge said: “I’m reasonably certain that the defendant went with company and was told how this could be done and when it could be done. I don’t believe that there were no funds in her account.
“This is a well-established method of shoplifting whereby someone pretends to be paying for items and without doing so then takes the trolley out of the store. Shoplifting is a serious offence and this was a brazen theft,” he added.
O’Donnell was given a two month prison sentence, suspended for two years on condition that she does not re-offend in that time. She was also ordered to pay compensation of £101.52, the value of the good stolen, to Asda.
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