JOANNE Maxwell, 21, of Romney Walk, Blackburn, was given a conditional discharge for six months and ordered to pay £10 compensation and £50 costs by Blackburn magistrates when she was sentenced for theft of a mobile phone.

The court heard that Maxwell had been convicted in her absence for the offence which she had originally denied.

Pat Bramley, prosecuting, said that 15-year-old Holly Rowlands had been in the Jubilee Hotel on Blakey Moor and was waiting for a lift home at 1.30am when she realised she had left her bag in the pub.

Her brother, who was working as a door supervisor, was informed and the bag was found with the contents strewn about the floor. Maxwell was found in the toilets with the phone in her hand.

Daniel King, defending, said Maxwell had always maintained that she had picked the bag and contents up off the floor and when she went into the toilets had found the phone on the window sill.