Mother-of-three kept watch for pram thieves

?A single mother-of-three who acted as a lookout while three friends brazenly stole pushchairs from a store at a Black Country shopping centre, has been ordered to complete 60 hours of unpaid work and pay £500 compensation.

Emma Jayne Aldred kept an eye out while they removed the tags from the pushchairs, worth £760, in the toilets and took them out of Mothercare World at Dudley's Merry Hill Centre. The suspects were pictured on CCTV - but despite the pictures being released by police, only Aldred has been caught.

At a previous hearing on September 17 the court was told when asked by police she had refused to name her accomplices for "fear of reprisals".

She told officers during an interview she had been offered £100 for acting as a lookout during the theft and planned to use the cash to buy clothing for her young son but had received nothing, the court heard.

The 35-year-old of Romsley Road, Bartley Green, Birmingham, pleaded guilty to shoplifting at Dudley Magistrates' Court. She was given a 12-month community supervision order by Magistrates yesterday.

At the sentencing hearing yesterday, Mr Mark Cooper, prosecuting, said Aldred, who was caught after CCTV pictures were published in the Express & Star, had entered the shop with three other people on May 22.

They were spotted on CCTV taking two pushchairs from the stand.They then took the pushchairs into the disabled toilets where they removed security tags while Aldred kept "lookout". They then took them out of the store.

"She told police she knew exactly what was going on. She said she was doing it to raise some money," he told the court. Mr David Moore, defending, said: "She claim-ed not to be the instigator of it but had been asked to take part. The financial reward was too much to refuse."

Aldred, who has three children, aged 13, nine and 14 months, refused to comment after the hearing.