By Staff Reporter

Last updated at 11:41, Thursday, 04 October 2012

A Romanian woman who stole a £28,000 ring from a jewellers’ shop in Keswick has committed similar offences all over Britain.

Details of 43-year-old Bacana Adam’s criminal past were given at Carlisle Crown Court when she was expected to be sentenced for the theft of a diamond and platinum ring from The Necessary Angel, the boutique jewellery shop in Packhorse Lane, Keswick, on May 1.

The case was adjourned at the request of defence counsel Tim Evans, who had been drafted in at short notice to represent Adam instead of her regular barrister, who comes from Birmingham.

Mr Evans explained that he had been able to receive only “very scant instructions” from Adam, since her command of English appeared to be so limited she could communicate only through an interpreter.

“I have no ability to have any sort of sensible conversation with her without an interpreter,” he said. “I have no chance of getting myself into a position from which I can do the job properly.”

Judge Paul Batty QC adjourned the case for nine days, though he was not convinced by Adam’s inability to speak English.

“She seemed to have no trouble when she went into the jewellers’ and insisted on inspecting the most expensive ring in the shop,” he said.

Judge Batty told Adam, who had pleaded guilty at a previous hearing to a charge of theft, he took a “very serious” view of her crime, not least because of the other thefts she committed in other parts of the country.

These, the court heard, included thefts in Bromsgrove, Wrexham, Staffordshire and Berwick-upon-Tweed, where police found her sitting with three other people surrounded by stolen linen in a Mercedes car after staff in a jewellers’ shop became suspicious of her behaviour. She was under a suspended prison sentence for a previous offence when she was arrested in Keswick.

Judge Batty said: “On the face of it, it seems she and whoever she was involved with drove to Cumbria from Birmingham in order to commit this crime.”

Probation staff were told to investigate her background.

Adam, of Morris Road, Birmingham, will now be sentenced next Thursday, October 11.

In the meantime she was remanded in custody.

Judge Batty told her: “Custody is extremely likely.”

First published at 11:26, Thursday, 04 October 2012
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk