Amy Rebecca Marshall, 24, and Julie Rogers, 44, appeared before Hartlepool Magistrates' Court where they both pleaded guilty to theft from a shop on April 27.

The court heard they were stopped on their way out of the Co-operative in Northgate, on Hartlepool's Headland.

Prosecuting, Stephen Hill said: "Miss Rogers was described by the store person who spoke to her as looking embarrassed by the whole situation."
He said that the two women were identified by CCTV and visited by police at their homes.

Mitigating, John Relton said it was the first time that Rogers, who asked for a second offence of abstracting electricity to be taken into consideration, has been in trouble for two years.

He said: "It is a great shame that she is back before the court today."
The court heard that both are in receipt of income support and that Marshall committed a theft in February this year.

Magistrates asked for a pre-sentence report for Marshall, of Garside Drive, Hartlepool, who will appear back at court on May 12.

Meanwhile Rogers, of Kendal Road, Hartlepool, was given a 12- month conditional discharge and ordered to pay £40 court costs.