A PENSIONER has been ordered to pay more than £400 for committing seven different thefts in six months.
Rosemary Sackville-West, pleaded guilty at Worcester Magistrates Court last Friday (March 20) to stealing groceries from Waitrose in Malvern and Bennets of Ross in Ross-on-Wye, worth almost £150.
Prosecution solicitor Owen Beale told the court Sackville-West was seen on several occasions on CCTV by staff members, but was stopped outside one store and handed the staff some money for the items she had taken.
Defence solicitor Sam Lamsdale said: “She recognises that she has a bit of a problem and she has now arranged that friends do her shopping for her, she does not do any shopping herself and a lot of the time she was gong into the stores for a legitimate reason.”
She said on one occasion the 81-year-old was buying petrol and the queue was very long and so she decided to take the sweets and leave the store.
District Judge Nigel Cadbury said: “It’s not that you have not got the money, it just seems you didn’t feel the necessity to pay as there was a queue to pay. A long queue is not an excuse.”
He ordered her to pay a fine £50 for each offence, court costs of £85 and a victim surcharge of £20.
