A SHOPLIFTER who asked a judge to cut a jail term ended up having it doubled.

Victoria Hurrell, 28, sent down by magistrates for two months, was given four months on appeal - after Judge Raymond Bennett had asked her counsel what was wrong with the original sentence.

The judge, sitting with magistrates, had said many people might have thought it should have been longer. He had given Hurrell - who has 46 previous convictions for theft - a chance to think again about the appeal part-way through the hearing - and warned her the bench had the power not only to decrease sentences imposed in the lower court, but to increase them. He added the appellant had an "horrendous" record for shoplifting.

Hurrell, of Woodhouse Street, Burnley, had been convicted of theft and appealed against sentence, at Burnley Crown Court.

The court heard Hurrell took 12 jars of chocolate, worth £47, from Woolworths.

John Woodward, for Hurrell, said she suffered from an on-going heroin addiction. Somebody had run out of Woolworths, deposited the chocolates on her and she fled. It had not been a deliberate intention of hers to go out and steal. Hurrell had had a difficult upbringing, which she had found it very difficult to come to terms with, but she couldn't carry on using that as an excuse for offending. She had to stop committing crime, otherwise sentences would get longer and longer.

At the time of the offence, Hurrell had done reasonably well, having been released from custody and not committed any offences. She needed professional counselling and help by way of a drugs rehabilitation centre. She had "rather arrogantly" thought she could fight her addiction herself and things had been on a downward spiral ever since.

Mr Woodward went on: "The appellant is a nuisance to East Lancashire shopkeepers.

"She acknowledges she needs some help and is prepared to risk a longer sentence for that help, rather than abandon this appeal."

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