Telford woman stole food from Tesco
A recovering drug addict who found herself short of money stole groceries from Tesco, a court heard.
Joanne Davies, 35, of Highway View, Arleston, Telford, admitted stealing groceries and confectionary worth £21.93 from Tesco at the Wrekin Retail Park in Wellington.
Telford magistrates yesterday gave her a conditional discharge for 12 months and ordered her to pay £85 costs and a £15 victim surcharge.
Mr Mike Phillips, prosecuting, said Davies was seen pushing a trolley into the store with a large black bag open inside it. She went round the store, putting some items into the trolley and some into the bag. When she got to the self-service checkout, she paid for the items in the trolley but not those in the bag.
Mr Steven Meredith, defending, said Davies had a history of heroin addiction but had been getting treatment. "This is a blip," he said.
He said Davies had recently moved back to Shropshire from the West Midlands but there had been a problem with her prescription for the heroin-substitute methodone. She had bought some drugs which had left her short of money for food.
Mr Meredith said Davies had also been spending a lot of her money on travelling to visit her terminally ill sister in hospital in Birmingham.
He said she was already working with the probation service under a community order imposed in the Midlands and had an appointment this week to transfer to the local service.
