City mum jailed again
Mother of five had 51 stealing offences before adding another 11
A TOOWOOMBA mother of five with a penchant for stealing goods from stores will be away from her family for some time after being jailed for her latest offending.
Christina Jean Rankin had racked up 51 convictions for stealing and another two of shop-lifting in the past five years before appearing before Toowoomba Magistrates Court to plead guilty to another 11 stealing offences.
Those offences included stealing $659 worth of two handbags and clothing from an Upper Mt Gravatt shopping centre on January 8; stealing a $599 Dyson fan from a Grand Central store in Toowoomba on January 14; stealing $391 worth of perfumes from a Toowoomba store on January 23 and 24; and stealing two pairs of shoes from a Grand Central sports store on February 7.
The 32-year-old later told police she had on-sold some stolen goods for a third of the retail price and that other items she had stolen to swap for marijuana for her partner.
Rankin had amassed eight pages of criminal history prior to these matters and she had been on probation and parole at the time of the offending.
A probation and parole officer told the court Rankin’s response to probation had been unsatisfactory, failing to report as directed a number of times and failing a drug test by testing positive for methylamphetamine and marijuana.
Defence solicitor Claire Graham told the court her client had endured drug issues over the years but when she had been in custody she had become clean of drugs.
Her client had spent five to six weeks in custody since her arrest which couldn’t be declared as she was serving out a previous sentence, she said.
Magistrate Kay Ryan said Rankin’s was “an extraordinary amount of offending”.
“It would appear the only time you’re not offending and not on drugs is when you’re in custody,” Ms Ryan told her.
Noting her full-time release date for her past sentence was July 19, Ms Ryan sentenced Rankin to nine months in jail but ordered she be eligible to apply for release on parole on these offences as of May 8.