She was a few weeks into a 12-month rehabilitation programme when she stole the items.
A MOTHER-of-two from Ely was fined after stealing goods, including ten pieces of jewellery, from Tesco at Culverhouse Cross.
Prosecutor Kelly Rivers told Cardiff Magistrates’ Court that Kylie Jones, of Snowden Road, made off with the items from the store on November 7 last year.
Following the incident, there was some confusion over the value of the goods taken.
Tesco originally provided a receipt totalling the items at £346.60, although police subsequently valued them at £280, with none of the goods recovered since.
Defending Jones, solicitor Declan McSorley told the court that the ten items of jewellery taken were costume pieces worth £10 each, while the meal deal items were £6 and the dog treats £1.60.
He also disclosed his client’s account of the whereabouts of the jewellery pieces.
The ten items were apparently sold on at £3 apiece – something Mr McSorley argued was below the usual illicit market rate of 50% of stolen goods’ retail price, citing the current economic climate as reason for this.
When she committed the crime, 37-year-old Jones was only three weeks into a 12-month community order following a previous offence.
She has 62 convictions for 470 previous offences – 130 of them theft-related, dating back as far as 2002, as well as a history of substance abuse, according to her lawyer.
As part of the community order, she has been attending rehabilitation sessions to deal with her class A drug abuse – something which her solicitor Mr McSorley described as a “history of chaos.”
Since attending the sessions, Jones has regularly been taking her medication and is now clean from illicit substances, according to her lawyer.
Chair of the bench, Patricia Blackwell, praised the defendant in response to this.
“You’re doing really well on the course and we don’t get many people doing as well as you at this stage of it,” she told Jones.
The court ordered the defendant to pay a £40 fine and £250 compensation to Tesco, alongside a £16 surcharge. She had admitted a charge of theft.
