Woman who is possible kleptomaniac jailed over Amazon Fire Sticks theft

Deirdre Anne McKeown received a five-month term at Belfast Magistrates’ Court for taking Amazon Fire TV Sticks worth £45 from a store in the city.

The 53-year-old, of Ashbourne Manor in Ballymena, Co Antrim, also punched a security guard who tried to detain her, prosecutors said.

Imposing the prison sentence, a judge said: “I cannot allow her to continuously go around persecuting the shopkeepers of Belfast.”

McKeown, a mother-of-four, has now amassed more than 30 convictions for theft.

She targeted B&M Bargains at Connswater in July last year, taking the devices and then claiming she had forgot to pay for them.

A Crown lawyer said a struggle developed when she tried to leave the shop.

A security officer who pursued McKeown into the car park and grabbed hold of her bag was punched.

The defendant was convicted of theft, two counts of common assault, and criminal damage to a conveyor belt and a shirt belonging to the member of staff.

McKeown’s previous record involves a stealing spree at the Abbey Centre just outside north Belfast, when she took electric toothbrushes, dresses and sandwiches.

During today’s hearing defence counsel Turlough Madden said a medical expert had indicated that the defendant had been assessed as a possible kleptomaniac.

Imposing a sentence of five months imprisonment the District Judge Fiona Bagnall pointed out that McKeown had “compounded the theft by assaulting those carrying out their duties”.