PROLIFIC shoplifter Sabina Hansard has walked free from court after magistrates heard there had been a massive improvement in her offending behaviour.

Hansard, 52, who stole items including a dress, necklace, polo-neck top, reading glasses, bangle and silk scarf from York city centre stores, was given a 12-month conditional discharge.

Sentence had been deferred last month to give Hansard a chance to seek help after the bench was told how she had made a “cry for help” in The Press a few days earlier.

She told the newspaper how everything she was wearing was stolen and how she had been jailed for between 25 and 35 times in recent years for shoplifting. She said she was homeless and had been struggling without benefits since being released from her previous sentence.

The latest shoplifting offences happened the day after the article appeared.

York parish priest Father Tim Jones, who made headlines around the world in 2009 after saying shoplifting from large national chains was sometimes the best option for many desperate and vulnerable people, told the court last month he believed she had a compulsion to steal.

Mark Thompson, who then represented Hansard, said then it had been a “good step” to go to The Press with a “cry for help”.

Previously law-abiding, she was now in a vicious circle of offending, going to prison and then reoffending after being released.

Father Tim told the court this week that the amount of her offending was massively reduced. He and church members had helped her over the past few weeks at a cost of thousands of pounds but the money had now run out.

He said applications for benefits had been made, but did not know when payments would come through.

THE Press is only able to reveal the court’s decision over Sabina Hansard after successfully opposing an application to block further coverage of the case.

Hansard’s solicitor, Liam Hassan, applied for reporting restrictions to be imposed. He said finding suitable accommodation for his client was important if she was to address her offending behaviour and further coverage could hamper those efforts. He said previous reporting had recently resulted in her being turned down by a landlord.

However, Chief Reporter Mike Laycock opposed restrictions, telling magistrates they were not justified or in the public interest.

He said the case was already in the public domain as The Press had reported the first hearing without restrictions, and imposing them now would prevent the public knowing how magistrates had dealt with the case.

He also argued that important issues of crime and punishment, and how the criminal justice system dealt with the problem of repeat shoplifting, were raised by the case.

Magistrates turned down the application, saying special circumstances did not exist to justify the imposition of restrictions.

Press wins right to publish sentencing

THE Press is only able to reveal the court’s decision over Sabina Hansard after successfully opposing an application to block further coverage of the case.

Hansard’s solicitor, Liam Hassan, applied for reporting restrictions to be imposed.

He said finding suitable accommodation for his client was important if she was to address her offending behaviour and further coverage could hamper those efforts.

He said previous reporting had recently resulted in her being turned down by a landlord.

However, chief reporter Mike Laycock opposed restrictions, telling magistrates they were not justified or in the public interest.

He said the case was already in the public domain as The Press had reported the first hearing without restrictions, and imposing them now would prevent the public knowing how magistrates had dealt with the case.

He also argued that important issues of crime and punishment, and how the criminal justice system dealt with the problem of repeat shoplifting, were raised by the case.

Magistrates turned down the application, saying special circumstances did not exist to justify the imposition of restrictions.