West Midlands mothers shoplifting trip to Macclesfield

Three shoplifting mothers, who stole more than £1,300 worth of footwear and cosmetics from TK Maxx, Next and Home Bargains at two retail parks and a shopping mall have been spared jail.

Karen Beckett, 44, Paige Griffin, 28, and Ann-Marie Beckett, 35, all from the West Midlands, went on a 140-mile round trip to steal the goods on November 9 last year.

The group planned their ‘serious thieving’ spree with test runs and acquired foil lined bags to evade security detectors before raiding four stores in just three hours.

First stop was Matalan and Home Bargains at Lyme Green retail park before heading to TKMaxx at the Grosvenor Shopping Centre.

Their final call was Next at Handforth Dean where they lifted  73 items of clothing, footwear and cosmetics worth £1,340.

Unfortunately for them, security guards had tied their car to the thefts via CCTV and before they could flee back to the West Midlands they were arrested.

Police officers stopped their vehicle and recovered all of the stolen items.

Inquiries revealed all the women had criminal records.

At Crewe Magistrates’ Court, the Becketts, from Walsall, and Griffin from Willenhall faced 26 weeks in jail under sentencing guidelines but were given suspended jail terms after JPs accepted they had ‘varying degrees of problems’ with their lives.

Mother-of-two Anne-Marie Beckett and Karen Beckett, pleaded guilty to four charges of shop theft from stores, namely clothing, footwear and cosmetics to a value of £1,340 from Next, clothing and wrapping paper from Matalan, cosmetics and dog food from Home Bargains and various items including purses and socks from TK Maxx.

Mother-of-one Griffin, a former beauty salon receptionist pleaded guilty to one charge of theft of goods to the value of £1,340 from Next.

Ann-Marie Beckett was sentenced to eight weeks custody suspended for a year, Karen Beckett for 12 weeks custody suspended for a year and Griffin got 18 weeks custody suspended for 12 months. 

They were each ordered to pay £274 in costs and surcharge. Theft charges against a fourth woman were dropped.