A SHOPLIFTER was jailed for a month by Pickering magistrates after the chairman of the Bench said her record was "horrendous".

Anne Marie Bhanvra, 39, of Earl Street, York, was given two concurrent one month sentences for stealing goods worth £16.98 from Malton's Safeway store and three blouses worth £42 from Dewhursts factory in Norton. She admitted the offences.

Jill Popham, prosecuting, said Bhanvra was seen putting food items in a shoulder bag in Safeway on June 15 and left without paying. She was arrested and police found the blouses in her car.

Mrs Popham said Bhanvra had last week been given a combination order - a combination of probation and community service - by York magistrates for shoplifting. She was also given a probation order last October and a 12-month conditional discharge in February.

For Bhanvra, Mark Thompson said they were impulsive offences committed while she had been in Malton visiting her grandmother. She was a single mother with four children who made considerable efforts to give them a comfortable home.

Mr Thompson added that Bhanvra was to be assessed for bowel cancer. He suggested a conditional discharge would be another cloud hanging over her.

But magistrates' chairman John Goodwill said: "These offences were committed whilst you were on probation, you are also in breach of a conditional discharge and you have a horrendous record."

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