A PROLIFIC thief is behind bars months after magistrates gave her the chance to turn her life around.

Leigh Mclaughlin was back before Southampton Magistrates' Court for stealing more than £100 worth of assorted clothing from Tesco, on Tebourba Way.

Back in August, the 23-year-old was given a suspended prison sentence after she was convicted of 18 thefts and one charge of making off without a payment.

But after she was arrested at the superstore in Millbrook on Monday, a sobbing Mclaughlin was jailed for 10 weeks by magistrates in the same court.

The court heard that Mclaughlin, who desperately pleaded with magistrates to give her another chance, had failed to turn up to a number of probation appointments, which were requirements as part of the suspended sentence order.

 

In total, she had been offered five chances to attend meetings but didn't show up to a single one.

Prosecutor Ryan Seneviratne argued there was no alternative for the magistrates but to send Mclaughlin to prison due to her disregard to probation and the breach of the sentence.

The court was told McLaughlin had been convicted seven times for 32 offences, including a number for battery and public disorder matters.

Will Day, mitigating, said Mclaughlin had struggled with a heroin and crack cocaine addiction, which led her to commit the spree of thefts.

He told the court she wanted to move forward in her life and that correspondence from probation had not reached her as she was sofa-surfing and living homeless in Southampton.

However, magistrates opted to extend her sentence of imprisonment after she admitted theft and breaching the suspended sentence.

She also pleaded guilty to another theft in July, this time from Co-op in Nursling.

Mclaughlin, of NFA, was also ordered to pay £100 compensation.