A prolific shoplifter who has clocked up 217 offences during a 46 year career of thieving has been spared jail after a judge said it was 'not in the public interest' for her to be punished by the courts.

Lesley Crockett, 59, of Huyton, near Liverpool, committed her first shop theft when she was 14 and at one stage appeared in court more than 50 times in ten years resulting in multiple jail sentences.

Along with the 169 theft matters, she also has 48 other offences on her record including crimes against a person, against property, fraud, public order offences and drug matters.

She was charged again in April after stealing hundreds of pounds of clothing from a Peacocks fashion store twice in two months. She insisted she had stolen the items to feed a long standing drug habit.

At Sefton magistrates court, Crockett faced another spell behind bars after she admitted two charges of theft but she was ordered to complete a 12 month community order with a six month drug treatment programme. 

Prolific shoplifter Lesley Crockett, 59, pictured outside of Sefton Magistrates' Court

District Judge Timothy Boswell told her it was the right time to give her a 'chance.' She was also ordered to pay £356 in compensation to Peacocks. 

Under the terms of the order Crockett was told to 'work' with probation officers to address her 'emotional wellbeing' and he was also made subject of a two year Criminal Behaviour Order banning her from her regular haunts in the town centres of Prescot and Huyton.

During the hearing Crockett said she was grieving for the loss of her son who died four years ago and had moved home to make a 'fresh start.'

Sentencing Crockett Judge Boswell told her: 'Your life has been blighted by crimes you have committed and the drug addiction that fuelled this criminality.

'Given the previous convictions, it would be perfectly easy to justify sending you to prison for a short period of time as it would provide shopkeepers with a break from your offending behaviour. But that would be all that it would achieve.

'You are engaging with the probation service and willing to work with them those factors suggest a community order is sensible to give you intensive help to tackle your drug addiction which is blighting your life. If you are not addicted to drugs the chances are you will not be appearing before the court as often, if at all.'

Concluding, the judge said: 'There will be no order for a financial penalty. This is one of the rare cases where it is not in the public interest to have a punishment element. The idea is to keep you away from the areas where you have shoplifted in the past. That will help you stop offending.'

Earlier Edward Handley, prosecuting, said: 'The defendant pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity to two separate shop thefts. The complainant is Peacocks in Huyton on two dates, February 9 and April 19. She was captured on CCTV.'

In mitigation Crockett's lawyer Elizabeth Manning said: 'She had a particularly bad time at around those months, February to April and the thefts were simply to fund her addiction problems.

'She did lose her son four years ago after he found in a diabetic coma at the age of 18. This was around the time of the anniversary, which led to her spiralling a little and at that time she was really going through it.'

Miss Manning added: 'Ms Crocket has moved house, is looking at a fresh start and has turned over a new leaf. There has not been any further criminality though she is still struggling with substance abuse.'

In a report last year the British Retail Consortium estimated shoplifting will cost retailers around £1 billion a year with theft from UK retail outlets has escalated by over 25% in the past year.

The Office for National Statistics reports that 365,164 shoplifting offences were recorded by police in the year to June 2023 - up 25% on the previous 12 months.

But industry professionals estimate the actual number of shoplifting incidents were likely to be 15 to 21 times higher than these figures. It is claimed police failed to respond to 71% of serious retail crime reports. In 2022 more than 50% of shop theft offences were closed with no suspect identified, while fewer than 15% led to a suspect being charged.

Last October a group of 13 retailers, including John Lewis, Tesco and the Co-op, greed to stump up almost £800,000 over two years to finance a specialist police team to tackle shoplifting gangs.