A heroin addict who stole a handbag containing about £100 in cash from a house in Runcorn has been sent down.
Pauline Ayres, 41, of Worthington Close, Palacefields, sneaked in via a back door on Martin Close on Wednesday, November 4.
Mike Stevenson, prosecuting, said the victim had been at home but did not discover the burglary until the evening.
The bag was found in nearby woods with its bank cards and purse in place but about £100 missing.
Police identified Ayres as a suspect and showed CCTV footage featuring her to the victim, who said she recognised Ayres as being from the neighbourhood and as someone who had called at the house previously trying to sell things.
The court heard another woman had noticed Ayres and an associate because they looked like ‘smack heads’.
A further witness said she saw Ayres walking up the side of the house then appear with a handbag.
She later picked Ayres out of a line-up.
Mr Stevenson said the defendant offered an alibi in police interview, but it was found to be false.
She admitted taking the bag and leaving it in the woods.
Mr Stevenson told Judge Tina Landale, presiding, that Ayres had previous convictions including six for theft in April 2014. She breached her suspended sentence by committing two thefts two months later.
Ayres was also slapped with a community order and rehabilitation requirement in October 2015 for four counts of theft.
William Staunton, defending, told the court his client had stopped taking drugs and wanted to be removed from other inmates who were still using.
He added that she had fallen back into drug use after returning home from prison to find a man she had known with two drug dealers, and that the man proceeded to ‘threaten her’, adding that Ayres ‘bears the scars of that relationship, missing a front tooth’.
Mr Staunton said Ayres had been subject to ‘brutalising experiences’, but had ‘an awful lot that’s positive in her life’ – she was a mother-of-three and looking forward to the birth of her first grandchild.
Judge Landale sentenced Ayres to eight months in prison for burglary and seven days consecutive for failing to comply with a drugs test.
She said the defendant had failed to keep out of trouble after past non-custodial punishments.
Ayres must also pay a victim surcharge.
Sending her down, Judge Landale said: “This was a simple opportunity to slip into her home at which point you have found perhaps a patio door open and you made a decision to steal her handbag.
“That’s set against your background of heroin addiction.”
She added: “The offence is aggravated because of your previous convictions.
“You were on a community order.
“You have a long history of failing to respond to community orders – although Mr Staunton’s submission is an attractive one, you have had so many chances.”
Source: http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/