Woman stole two bottles of wine from supermarket then drank them in toilets

AN alcoholic swiped two bottles of wine from a supermarket shelf and drank them in the store toilets, a court heard.

Anne Patricia Stokes, of Royds Street, Accrington, put the £5 bottles of wine into her trolley at Asda in Rawtenstall on November 4 last year before removing them and going into the toilets.

Burnley Magistrates Court heard how staff later found two empty bottles.

Stokes, 37, pleaded guilty to shoplifting. She was given a 12-month conditional discharge and ordered to pay £10 compensation.

John Rusius, defending, said prolific shoplifter Stokes has since served a three-month prison sentence for other shoplifting offences and is ‘determined to change her lifestyle and not offend again’.

He told the court that she has stopped drinking and was now attending substance misuse service Inspire on a voluntary basis.

Mr Rusius said: “She had gone into the store and put bottles of wine in her trolley. The staff found the bottles after they had been consumed by the defendant, such was her addiction to alcohol.

“She is now doing all the right things.”