A SINGLE mother went shoplifting when she and her daughter were left with just £1.09 to live on over a weekend.

Burnley Magistrates heard how ex-convict and drug addict Geraldine Breithaupt was told by the DSS that she would 'have to manage'.

She then helped herself to clothing worth £53 from Burnley store New Look.

Breithaupt, still on prison licence, kept her freedom after the bench said she had been in desperate circumstances. They added there was a "glimmer of hope" in her life after she had managed to conquer drugs.

Breithaupt, 34, of Southey Street, Burnley, admitted theft and was given a 12 months conditional discharge. Tom Snape, prosecuting, said that when approached by staff, the defendant went behind a pillar, removed the clothes from a bag and threw them to the floor.

She said: "I have done it but don't do this in front of my daughter and near the door."

Trevor Grice, defending, said on her release from prison, Breithaupt made a claim to the DSS and was allowed payment which should have been put into her bank account.

When she checked, there was only £1.09 in her account. She went to the DSS with her daughter, waited four hours to be interviewed and was told she would have to prove no cash had been put into her bank. She went to the cash machine to get a receipt and when she got back the DSS doors had been closed with her daughter still inside.

Both a security guard and the manager refused to admit her but her daughter was released.

Mr Grice said Breithaupt was told she would have to sort herself out and she subsequently committed the offence.