CUSHTY, EASILY DONE

What this crim told judge who jailed her after ‘second chances’

A WOMAN finally sent to jail after a staggering 207 convictions shouted to the judge: “Cushty, easily done.”

Drug addict Caroline Pattinson, 34, literally has a rap sheet as long as her arm.

She was jailed this week for stealing from a pensioner but the Crown Prosecution Service confirmed that she had 207 previous convictions.

They include three for “offences against the person”, four of offences on property, 26 fraud and similar deception offences, 108 theft and dishonesty crimes, five public order offences, 42 offences concerning police – such as resisting arrest or assaults on police officers – two drug offences and 17 miscellaneous nonrecordable offences.

This week she was at last jailed for twoand-a-half years after admitting conning her way into 72-year-old Lilian Wilde’s tower block home by pretending she was visiting an aunt on December 19 last year.

Slipped

She told the pensioner she was feeling dizzy after a bout of pneumonia and was invited in for a coffee.

But once the OAP’S back was turned, the serial criminal took advantage.

She slipped into the lounge to pocket Mrs Wilde’s purse which contained £40 and a Morrisons shopping voucher.

Prosecutor Melinda Blackburn told Newcastle Crown Court: “Mrs Wilde prepared a victim statement in which she says as a (right) branded her despicable and said: “This was planned with some degree of cunning.

Drink

“There must be a significant sentence to send a message that the elderly will be protected when they are at home and protected from people like you who seem to be without morals.”

Pattinson (above), from Elswick, Newcastle, who turned to drink after coming off drug substitutes, already had a conviction for stealing a pensioner’s handbag in a Marks & Spencer store.

She tried to set up an alibi to dodge justice for targeting Mrs Wilde but was picked out during an identification parade, the court heard.

Mean

Richard Copsey, for Pattinson, claimed she had been ill at the time.

Despite that, she took advantage once she was inside the flat and he added: “She accepts that she has committed a mean offence.”