Shoplifter sold stolen goods from Facebook page

Rosaleen Mary Bradley, from Fianna House in Belfast, was given a 12-month sentence after she admitted stealing goods from the Urban Outfitters store at Victoria Square, and also from the Boots store at Sprucefield.

Judge Patricia Smyth urged Bradley, who has been on remand since last June and who has 195 criminal convictions, to continue working with the help offered to her or risk spending the rest of her life behind bars.

Prosecuting barrister Rosemary Walsh said Bradley was involved with two other people in the theft of goods amounting to £3,570 from Urban Outfitters on April 26 last year.

In the aftermath of the theft, the store manager was alerted to a Facebook profile linked to Bradley which was selling some of his stolen stock.

She also stole goods worth £894 from Boots on May 12 last year. She entered the store at Sprucefield around 6.30pm, placed a number of items in her bag and left without paying.

Ms Walsh said Bradley was arrested on June 1, and revealed she has 129 convictions for theft on her record.

Defence solicitor Joe Murphy spoke of issues surrounding Bradley’s mental health, and said she had a “profound” addiction to drugs.

The solicitor told Belfast Crown Court that “in the run up to this offending”, Bradley and other relatives had racked up a £10,000 drugs debt, “there were a group of men of foreign extraction threatening her and her family”, and “that was what brought her to these shops”.

Sentencing Bradley, Judge Smyth said she rejected her claims she was acting under duress, and told her: “You are a menace to shopkeepers and you don’t appear to have any sense of remorse regarding the harm you have caused and continue to cause to these people.”