Drug user banned from Greggs and other Sunderland shops after stealing spree

Kayleigh Marrs, 40, was jailed for a total of 18 weeks but walked free from court after magistrates suspended the sentence for a year.

But they banned Marrs, of Belle Vue Park, Ashbrooke, from entering Greggs’ outlet in Chester Road for three months.

And they put the same prohibition on her going into One Stop’s outlet in the city’s Broadway.

Marrs pinched an unknown value of chocolate from One Stop on Sunday, March 2, prosecutor Clare Irving told magistrates in South Tyneside.

She returned on Monday, March 24, to take Easter eggs and toilet roll, again of an unknown amount, and the next day pinched £56 of loo paper.

Her biggest haul from the retailer came just 24 hours later, when she made off with £213 of toilet paper and Cadbury Crème Eggs.

Marrs also struck at Greggs four times, the first on Tuesday, March 18, when she fled with £60 of foodstuffs.

Two days later, she went back and made off with the same amount of stock - and repeated the trick the day after, again at £60.

Her last Greggs theft came on Friday, April 11, when she swiped £40 of food and left without paying.

The offender also stole £57 of items from a Sunderland branch of Home Bargains on Friday, March 21.

Marrs, who the court heard is seeking help for a drug issue, pleaded guilty to nine counts of theft from a shop and one of breaching a conditional discharge.

She has a previous criminal record of 51 shop thefts and 14 fraud offences and owes the courts £5,800 from past offending.

Mrs Irving said: “None of the goods were recovered. All offences were caught on CCTV, and she is also known to staff.”

Gerry Armstrong, defending, told magistrates Marrs was making progress in her bid to turn her life around and urged them not to jail her.

He said: “It’s very easy sometimes for us when we sit here and don’t lead the lifestyle that some defendants think is the norm.

“The people who she associates with, they are in the same position as her. Their view of life and dealing with problems is different.

“It speaks volumes that she was stealing food to eat or to sell.

“I thought it was the same old story, the old story of her stealing to fund drugs. This is not that.

“I think to offer her ongoing help might not change the world, but it may change the world of the defendant.”

Magistrates jailed Marrs for six weeks for a single charge against Greggs and One Stop and that against Home Bargains, to run consecutively.

They jailed her for six concurrent weeks for each of the other thefts and to the same for breaching the conditional discharge.

She must pay compensation of £269 to One Stop, £220 to Greggs and £57 to Home Bargains.