Mother who hid stolen goods in pram jailed
A mother of four who tried to hide shoplifted goods inside her child's pram has been jailed for 10 weeks.
Leanne Price, of Foster Road, Wolverhampton, stole fragrance worth £137 from TK Maxx, at Bentley Bridge, on February 9 then frying pans and deodorant worth £23 from B&M on the same day.
The 32-year-old was detained at TK Maxx on the day of the offence, during which she was pushing a pram with one of her children inside. All the items were recovered from inside the pram.
Appearing at Wolverhampton Magistrates Court, Price, who gave birth to her latest child five weeks ago, said she was trying to raise enough money to buy a new breastfeeding pump to express milk to give to social services for her son.
Price, who is already on a suspended sentence for previous similar offences and had only been released from prison in August last year, cried in court as magistrates issued a custodial sentence.
A report from the probation service said: "Leanne has a tendency to bury her head in the sand and disengages with the service."
Price has only attended seven out of 15 of her appointments and only tends to do so when she is at risk of eviction, the court heard.
"We are at a loss at what to do with Leanne," the report concluded.
Magistrate Stephen Russell said: "We are not convinced that you entered two separate shops to conduct two separate thefts for the reasons you have given and we are also not happy with your lack of engagement with the probation service who are there to help.
"Therefore, for the two counts of theft we issue a 10-week custodial sentence, which would have been 12 except for your early guilty plea."
Price pleaded guilty to two counts of theft. She was ordered to pay £80 victim surcharge and was taken into custody from court.
