Two serial shoplifters who stole items worth hundreds of pounds after repeatedly targeting the same stores have been jailed.
Lee Cullinane, 31, and Danielle Massen, 43, both hit branches of the Co-Op on multiple occasions in and around Great Yarmouth and also stole clothing from the Original Factory Shop.
Norwich Magistrates’ Court was told they had taken goods including joints of meat, cheese and coffee that were easy to sell quickly to raise cash to feed their drug habits.
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Massen, of Colomb Road in Gorleston, was jailed for 16 weeks after pleading guilty to eight thefts on various dates between May 22 and August 31.
She also admitted breaching a previous eight week suspended prison sentence, a community order and failing to cooperate with a drug testing order.
Josephine Jones, prosecuting, said she had walked off with everything from joints of beef to “huge amounts of coffee” from the Co-Op and Farmfoods and clothes worth £357 from the Original Factory Shop in Gorleston.
Lucy Brightwell, mitigating, said she recognised she was in the “last chance saloon” but that she had been attempting to tackle her addiction to heroin and crack.
“She had buried her head in the sands and was in a crisis state,” she added.
READ MORE: Serial shoplifter banned from every store in Great Yarmouth (except two)
In separate offences, Cullinane, of no fixed abode, admitted seven separate charges of shop theft and an attempted theft.
He was jailed for 12 weeks despite him pleading to the court it was the sixth birthday of his child and he was desperate to attend celebrations.
The court heard he had “a very large number” of previous convictions for shoplifting while his latest spree saw him steal goods worth more than £500.
Ms Brightwell said prison would not help his underlying drug addiction issues.
Magistrates told him immediate custody was the only option and that “post-sentence supervision will hopefully help address your issues with drugs”.
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