A WOMAN and her partner in crime stole meat products worth nearly £2,000 in three visits to the same store on three consecutive days.

Blackburn magistrates heard Zoe Syme loaded the rucksack carried by the man before they both walked out of Marks and Spencer in Burnley.

Syme, 37, of Kent Street, Burnley, pleaded guilty to seven shoplifting offences. She was made subject to a community order for 18 months with a nine months drug rehabilitation requirement and a 20-day rehabilitation activity requirement and ordered to pay a £114 victim surcharge.

Susheela Regala, prosecuting, said the offences at Marks and Spencer were committed on three consecutive days in November. Staff estimated she and her accomplice stole £500 worth of meat on the first occasion, £1,200 worth on the second and £200 worth on the third.

Another offence, at Reel Cinema, was caught on CCTV which showed Syme removing about 30 items from the confectionery counter and loading them into a bag. She walked out with £120 worth of goods.

Bill Rawstron, defending, said on each and every occasion his client had assisted someone else.

He said she had been estranged from her mother at the time and was struggling.

“They are now reconciled with her mother and is living at her address,” said Mr Rawstron.

Revoking an existing community order and imposing the new penalty the chairman of the magistrates said it was the defendant’s chance to turn her life around with the help of the Probation Service.

“Any more of this will take you towards a custodial sentence,” she added.