TWO SHOPLIFTERS who repeatedly raided the same neighbourhood convenience store together are both starting months in jail.

Both should have appeared before York Magistrates Court on January 5 and magistrates signed warrants for their arrest.

Police found both of them in the same day, arrested them and held both in custody until they could appear via video link at York Magistrates Court to face justice.

Shortly after Lauren Elizabeth Hughes, 31, was arrested in Tang Hall, York North Neighbourhood Police (NPT) team tweeted: "Just to let you know, if you are wanted by the Police, we do check lofts

"NPT Officers have arrested a prolific York shoplifter this evening who was wanted on warrant."

Hughes, of Field View, Clifton, has a long list of previous convictions for stealing from shops.

Her accomplice Liam Michael Smith was arrested a few hours later the same day.

York magistrates had given Hughes a chance last November when they let her keep her freedom with a community order for four charges of theft and one of failure to attend court.

But within days she was stealing household items from Spar’s store in Turner Close, off Huntington Road, with Liam Michael Smith, 32.

The pair were back at the same store on December 6 when they raided it twice together taking household items.

Hughes stole alcohol from the same store on her own on the same day and Liam Michael Smith stole household items from it on December 9.

Also on her own, she stole items worth £55.75 from One Stop shop on Dodsworth Avenue on November 25, and £30 of items from the same shop on November 27.

She was jailed for 22 weeks for all offences, including resentencing for those offences for which she was given the community order which was revoked.

Bicycle thief Liam Michael Smith, 32, of Field View, Clifton, was jailed for 17 weeks for the thefts he carried out with Hughes, plus two thefts of bicycles from York District Hospital on May 14.

Hughes pleaded guilty to six offences of theft and Smith to five.

It is not the first time police have found a wanted person hiding in a loft.

In November they arrested a 40-year-old man who tried to hide in the roof of an Acomb house.

He had skipped bail at both York Magistrates and Hull Crown Courts.

In 2015, a drink driver was arrested after police found him behind a nativity scene in Tadcaster.. He denied that he was hiding there.