Jail for woman who stole £410 chocolate by threatening staff with 'HIV needle'

Kayley Roberts told members of staff at the Co-Op branches in Broadway and Sutton Road, Walsall, she was HIV positive, Wolverhampton Crown Court heard.

The 26-year-old threatened to bite the manager of the Sutton Road shop when he put an arm across the confectionary display, explained Ms Amiee Parkes, prosecuting.

He removed it as the defendant bared her teeth and moved towards him, then put it back until she announced she had a contaminated needle with which she would stab him if he did not get out of the way.

Moments later she escaped with a bag full of chocolate.

Roberts made similar threats to a female member of staff at the Broadway branch who tried to block another theft and told her: "I know where you live and will find you," the court was told.

The mini crimewave started on August 21 and continued until September 20. She was arrested eight days later.

Police were not immediately contacted about the crimes because of the relatively low value of the stolen goods but were alerted as the defendant's behaviour grew more alarming. She had previous convictions involving 26 offences and had been given a suspended sentence a month before it started.

Mr Stephen Cadwaladr, defending, said Roberts stopped taking drugs after forming a relationship with a man who led a clean life but returned to the habit after it broke down.

He continued: "She then made a nuisance of herself stealing chocolate to sell and pay for her heroin." The couple are now trying to resurrect the relationship, it was said.

Roberts, from Nash Square, Perry Barr, pleaded guilty to three robberies and three thefts from the two shops and was sent to prison for two years four months by Judge James Burbidge QC who told her: "You have amassed a significant criminal record and brazenly entered the stores and started stealing despite the efforts of staff to stop you.

Shopkeepers carrying out their responsibilities for modest pay must be protected by the court."