Wigan shoplifting menace is sent back to jail

Zara Fairhurst, of Vulcan Road, Marsh Green, targeted the town’s Asda four times in less than two weeks, stealing more than £700 worth of products.

On November 29, Fairhurst, who is a known heroin and crack user, entered the supermarket in Soho Street, on the Robin Retail Park, with a green shopping bag and a large black handbag and stole unknown items.

Wigan justices then heard that she returned to the store on December 7 and stole various products worth more than £146.03.

Two days later she then stole items with a value of more than £109, before returning to the store a day later on December 10 to steal products worth more than £457.70.

When officers attended Fairhurst’s home to arrest her on December 17, they recovered stolen items, including Yankee Candle products and beauty items from her black handbag.

Tess Kenyon, prosecuting, told the court that Fairhurst was a “prolific shoplifter”, who had 23 thefts on her record.

In March, she was jailed for 90 days, followed by a further 14-day imprisonment in October, and then in November she was handed a suspended sentence, which she has breached due to the latest offences.

The sentences related to thefts from Boots and TK Maxx on the retail park, where she is the subject of a two-year exclusion order.

In a victim impact statement, a security guard at Asda, who reported the most recent four offences, said the thefts had caused a “negative effect” on staff morale.

Melissa Fagan, defending, said Fairhurst’s methadone prescrition for her drug problems had lapsed at the time of the thefts.

She said: “When released from her custodial sentence, the defendant had been motivated to overcome her drug addiction, but her methadone prescription lapsed. She contacted medical services and had an appointment to be re-assessed for a prescription, but she said she would be 15 minutes late, and when she attended, they refused to help her.

“This left her for a short period of time without a prescription and she then found herself committing these four offences.”

Appearing at Wigan Magistrates’ Court via videolink, Fairhurst admitted to four thefts.

Sentencing her to 36 weeks in prison, the bench also ordered her to pay a victim surcharge of £122 and handed her a one-year exclusion order not to enter Asda.