A PROLIFIC shoplifter was caught stealing - just 50 minutes after being released from court on bail.
Amanda Jane Queen, 45, of Rydal Street, off London Road in Carlisle, was jailed for 14 weeks after admitting three separate thefts.
Magistrates in Carlisle heard how the most recent, committed on February 1, came less than an hour after she had assured a Deputy District Judge that she would stay out of trouble.
On that occasion she stole a jumper and a handbag, worth £44.98, from New Look in The Lanes Shopping Centre, Carlisle.
John Moran, prosecuting, told magistrates that the previous two offences had been committed on January 25 - the day she was released from a custodial sentence - and then on January 31.
She stole £40 of clothing from Asda, on London Road, in the first incident, and meat worth £102 from Iceland six days later.
Mark Shepherd, defending Queen, described his client as a "nuisance, prolific shoplifter and a drug user" but asked magistrates to consider a sentence other than jail.
They sentenced her to 14 weeks in total for the thefts, but Queen must serve an additional four weeks - to run consecutively - for unpaid fines.
She must also pay £80 victim surcharge.
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