Mum who burgled house while children were inside is locked up
A mother-of-one has been jailed for more than three years after burgling a woman's home in a row over money.
Wolverhampton Crown Court heard how Kacey Moncreiffe, of Birmingham Road, Oldbury, targeted the address at Clews Close, Walsall, on July 30 last year.
The 21-year-old broke into the house while children were still inside.
She stole a large quantity of cash and high value clothing.
Five months earlier the defendant had carried out a sophisticated fraud at the luxury London department store Harrods, revealed Mr Robert Edwards, prosecuting.
She and accomplices used a fake bank card to buy £1,400 worth of the store's gift cards.
But a sales girl became suspicious and alerted security staff who detained them before they could get away.
A subsequent search of a vehicle parked outside the store, revealed a £10,000 haul of further gift cards.
Mr Edwards said the women had not been charged with a criminal offence linked to these further cards, but that a criminal investigation was under way to establish where they had come from.
Mr Harbinder Lally, defending, said Moncrieffe was truly remorseful and regretful.
Victim impact statements read out at the start of sentencing heard how the family at the Walsall home 'sometimes felt scared' about being in their own home after the burglary.
Moncreiffe pleaded guilty to fraud and was found guilty of burglary after a trial and was jailed for a total of three and a half years.
Judge Wait explained how several factors, including the presence of the children in the property at the time of the raid, made it a more serious offence for him to deal with.
He told Moncreiffe: "You took a large amount of cash and items of high value."
He added that the crime carried out at London's Harrods had been a sophisticated fraud.
