Shrewsbury shoplifter caught with more than £500 of goods from stores

Molly Jones, 26, of Derfald Street, Shrewsbury, admitted two charges of shoplifting at an earlier hearing.

At Shrewsbury Crown Court, sitting at Telford Justice Centre on Monday, Mr Recorder Ben Williams said it seemed that Jones' taste of custody had served as a wake up call.

"Keep yourself on the straight and narrow, once and for all," he said.

"If you get sent back to custody you will only have yourself to blame."

Jones had admitted stealing items worth £432 from Sainsburys in Wrexham and £75 from nearby TK Maxx. She was given four and two-month suspended sentences to run consecutively, suspended for two years, and was ordered to do a nine-month drug rehabilitation requirement. She was also fined £600.

Miss Olivia Appleby, prosecuting. said the offences happened in April 2022, breaching suspended sentences Jones had received for similar thefts she committed in 2019.

In 2019 she admitted seven shop thefts and asked for six other offences to be taken into consideration.

The latest offences were foiled by security guards in Sainsbury's in Wrexham after Jones made her way to the exit without paying. They tried to stop her but she ran across the car park. She was spotted on CCTV and apprehended. As well as the Sainsbury's items she was found to have goods worth £75 from TK Maxx.

Mr Robert Edwards, defending said the root of Jones' offending was an addiction to Class A drugs.

"She managed to stay away from the drugs for three quarters of her earlier, suspended sentence before relapsing," Mr Edwards said.

He said her five weeks on remand in prison after failing to appear in court had been the hardest thing she had ever done.

"It has helped her," he said.

"She has made best use of her time in custody by taking relapse prevention and drug trigger courses and is now desperate to undertake the drug rehabilitation requirement. She doesn't want to live the life she has been living."

"Her taste of prison has been a powerful motivator."