A PERSISTENT thief started shoplifting within days of leaving jail because she wasn’t getting the help she needed, York magistrates heard.

Michaela Eina Allen, 29, has a long record and was released partway through a 10-week prison sentence on November 20.

Martin Butterworth, prosecuting, said on November 24 she stole items worth £24 from Spar in Lowther Street and on November 28, she stole about £30 worth of items from Tesco’s in Goodramgate. Police refused to give her bail after her arrest and sent her to court in custody.

Her solicitor Craig Robertson said she was stuck in a “revolving door” of offending, jail, offending, jail.

“She is not getting what she should be getting in terms (of help) from the probation service,” he said. “As a result she is coming back before the court.”

She was due to see her prison licence supervising officer later that day.

Allen, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty to two charges of theft.

Magistrates said they would give her a chance to show how she could stop offending.

They gave her a 12-month community order with 20 days’ rehabilitative activities and banned her from the two stores she raided after her release from prison.

They warned her that if she reoffended or breached the community order she would “inevitably” go back to jail.

They heard a probation report that she had been given a community order earlier this year to work with a community rehabilitation company (CRC).