Mums spared jail for shoplifting ‘day trip’ Trio targeted town’s stores in ‘serious thieving’
THREE stay-at-home mums who went on a shoplifting spree that targeted Macclesfield retailers ahead of Christmas have been spared jail.
Karen Beckett, 44, Paige Griffin, 28, and Ann-Marie Beckett, 35, stole more than a thousand pounds worth of goodies on a girlie day-trip do some ‘serious thieving’.
Items taken included clothes, footwear, cosmetics, wrapping paper, dog food, purses and socks.
Initially they went to the Lyme Green Retail Park, looting shelves and rails at Matalan and Home Bargains, before switching to the Grosvenor Shopping Centre, where they hit TK Maxx.
Their carefully planned spree, in November last year, involved test runs and foil lined bags to evade security detectors.
The trio also went to Handforth Dean, stealing 73 items from Next worth £1,340, before attempting to escape back to their homes in the West Midlands. But they were arrested after security workers at one of the retail parks identified their Nissan Qashqai via CCTV and passed details on to the police.
All items were recovered and inquiries revealed all the women had criminal records with two having convictions for petty theft.
At Crewe magistrates court, the Becketts, from Walsall, who are thought to be related and Griffin of nearby Willenhall, were given suspended jail terms after JPs accepted they had ‘varying degrees of problems’ with their lives.
Mum-of-two AnneMarie Beckett and Karen Beckett, each pleaded guilty to four charges of shop theft.
Griffin, a mum-of-one and former beauty salon receptionist, admitted one charge of theft of goods.
Prior to the trip Griffin had publicly bragged about £5,000 worth of free dental surgery she had in Turkey having earlier claimed on Tiktok she was being trolled about her ‘wheelie bin’ green, brown and black teeth.
At the time she said: “I never thought that I would ever be able to afford such an expensive surgery and I was shocked by how much the whole procedure would’ve cost.
“Now I can smile at strangers in Tesco with confidence and take photos and smile with my son for the first time.
“I never thought I could be considered ‘beautiful’ and now I am.”
Karen Beckett had 35 previous convictions for undisclosed offences from 1995 to 2011 whilst Griffin had four offences on her record including going equipped for theft in 2019 and theft in 2021.
Former shop worker Ann-Marie Beckett had one conviction for theft from 2006. Their lawyer Nigel Ford said: “I would not argue that there was no planning because there clearly was.
“All the ladies are extremely keen to have this resolved and to know that they won’t be going to prison.”
Sentencing the three women, magistrate Ian Williams said: “There were serious elements to this.
“There was a considerable distance they travelled.
“But we are mindful when two of these people are from one family, there are children and other problems involved.
“You have all got varying degrees of problems with your lives, varying degrees of problems related to these thefts.”
The women were each ordered to complete 25 rehabilitation activity days with the probation service. They were each ordered to pay £274 in costs and surcharge.
Theft charges against a fourth woman were dropped.