How stealing was only option to feed heroin habit

“EVERYTHING else in your head goes blank — your granny could’ve died the same day and you wouldn’t care — you have to steal to get the drugs.”

That is the startling assessment from 19-year-old Paige Easton, pictured, who was once one of Tayside’s most notorious shoplifters.

At the age of 16 the Angus youngster made the fatal mistake of trying her boyfriend’s methadone.

Over the next yearand-a-half she spiralled into a daily existence of heroin abuse. Living in a drug den in Arbroath, Paige would target grocery stores in Angus and the Mearns as well as clothing outlets in Dundee, stealing three or four times a day to fund her habit.

With the support of the Criminal Justice Social Work Department, Paige has now turned her life around and moved into a new flat in Montrose, with a steady partner — former habitual shoplifter David Clark, who has endured a similar struggle with drugs — and a first child on the way.

She said it was not until she was free of heroin that the first pangs of guilt over her astonishing shoplifting career hit home.

“I do feel bad about it,” she said. “I would never do it again, it was only because of the situation I was in.

“Stealing was the only way I could do it because I wouldn’t sell my body and I didn’t want to hurt anybody.”

According to Paige, Arbroath has the most prevalent shoplifting problem in Angus due to the large population of drug users.

She used to raid smaller convenience stores and corner shops in the town because they were easier to steal from undetected.

“You make sure there is nobody watching you and nobody in the aisle,” Paige said. “Then you just put it down your breeks and walk out.

“The first time I did it I was petrified in case I got caught but then after that I wanted to do it again — it is an adrenaline rush going in to steal.”

Paige , originally from Forfar, has been off heroin since April 2012 and is now on a methadone prescription.

“It wasn’t until after I was clean that I started to think about the consequences,” she said. “When you are on something like that and you are rattling, nothing else matters.”

Paige added: “My mum is over the moon.

“When I was on drugs she didn’t want anything to do with me and told me my shoplifting was partly the reason she stopped speaking to me.

“I can’t describe how happy I am I’m not there anymore.”