Shoplifter who stole to fuel addiction but is now drug-free is praised by judge
A judge has given a shoplifter a conditional discharge after he heard the recovering addict had been drug-free for nine months.
Rachel Barrat of Lawns Wood, Malinslee, Telford, appeared before Shrewsbury Crown Court on Friday charged with three counts of theft.
Prosecutor Robert Edwards told the court that the 44-year-old was a passenger in a car at the Queens Shopping Park in Stafford when police found stolen items in the vehicle on April 25 2022.
She was one of two people arrested and charged with stealing more than £300 worth of items from B&M, Boots and M&S at the retail park.
However, the court heard, Barrat, who admitted the three counts of theft, had been stealing to fuel her drug addiction.
Suzanne Francis, defending, told the court that Barrat had now been off cocaine, crack cocaine and heroin for more than nine months.
She added: "She had been spending £60 to £100 a day on class A drugs that she funded through shoplifting and her benefits."
Judge Anthony Lowe told Barrat it had been a "Herculean effort" to get clean.
He said: "I am very pleased that you have turned the corner. It is easy, often, for people like me to say you have come off the drugs, but they are so addictive, it is a Herculean effort to come off them.
"Well done for turning it around."
She was handed a conditional discharge for six months but ordered to pay a "small" victim surcharge.
