A DRUG-USING mum dressed herself in new clothes in a shop fitting room before making her getaway with her old garments on top.
Chantelle Kirsty Andrews went into Internationale, in Middleton Grange Shopping Centre, Hartlepool, where she selected several items of clothing from the shelves.
The 27-year-old, who has two children, then made her way to the store’s changing rooms where she stripped off, put on the new threads, and put her own clothes back on top. The brazen thief then even came out of the fitting rooms and picked up a pair of boots as well, before she left the shop kitted out in the new gear.
Prosecuting, Alan Davison told Hartlepool Magistrates’ Court: “The defendant put the new clothes on underneath her own clothes. She said she’d picked up the clothes, gone into the changing rooms and returned and took a pair of boots as well.
She said she’d taken the goods without paying because she had a drugs habit and was going to sell them to pay that off.”
Andrews, of Sheriff Street, Hartlepool, pleaded guilty to theft on Friday, March 1.
Mitigating, Barry Gray said she had only started to get into trouble in 2010 when she was introduced to drugs by her partner. He said: “It led to a decline in her behaviour and a catastrophic change in her lifestyle which prior to that had been acceptable.
“This was a one-off blip.”
Chairman of the bench John Taylor sentenced Andrews to a six-month conditional discharge and a £15 victim surcharge.