Bored granny used her bus pass to go on shoplift tour
She faces jail if she steals again
A GREAT- grandmother used her OAP bus pass to go on shoplifting sprees because she was bored with being old.
Supported by her trusty shopping trolley, June Humphreys, 76, would walk into a store and wander down the aisles filling it with goods before walking off.
During a four-year spree she travelled across two counties and tried to make off with items worth hundreds of pounds.
Despite being repeatedly caught by security staff she continued on her shoplifting binge.
A probation officer said Humphreys had clocked up as many shoplifting convictions as a teenage heroin addict.
Following the latest series of thefts on January 6, she admitted stealing sweets and chocolate worth £2 from Iceland, baby clothes worth £69 from BHS, another batch of baby clothes worth £24.98 from a B&M store and even a breast pump from Boots.
After arriving at North Staffordshire magistrates court pushing her shopping trolley, Humphreys pleaded guilty to stealing from four shops in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent.
But the mother of seven escaped jail after telling magistrates that she stole only because she was bored by old age and having nothing to do.
Humphreys lives alone in Crewe, Cheshire, and claimed she went out shoplifting because she had to do something to ‘fill the time’. She said she had little contact with her children or grandchildren.
She has previous convictions for shop theft in 2011, 2012, 2013 and as recently as two weeks ago. Mag- istrates warned her that she will go to prison if she shoplifts again.
Darren Vernon, a probation officer, told the hearing: ‘She has travelled around Staffordshire and Cheshire on public transport and committed offences. She knows what she is doing is wrong – she says she is bored and needs to fill her time.
‘She lives alone. She has seven children but the only one she has contact with lives above her. She has acquired the record of a heroin addict in his late teens.’
Store detectives would catch Humphreys red-handed but she simply refused to stop.
Appearing in court the pensioner admitted the thefts on January 6 and also pleaded guilty to stealing alcohol, coffee and confectionery worth £30.42 from an Aldi store and stealing two pairs of boots worth £94.50 from a shoe shop in Hanley a week before Christmas.
Mr Vernon told the court Humphreys had been ill. She was being treated for breast cancer and also suffered from osteoarthritis.
He recommended that the court give her one last chance and that if she reoffended then a custodial sentence may be the only answer.
Andrew Bennett, defending, said: ‘My client does not want to go to prison. She wants to stop stealing.’
Magistrates revoked a community order that had previously been imposed on Humphreys for theft and sentenced her to one month in prison suspended for 12 months.
She was also ordered to pay £45 costs and an £80 victim surcharge for the offences.