Peterborough thieves stole more than £600 worth of Lego and electric toothbrushes from King’s Lynn B&M
A group of four who were arrested for stealing Lego sets and electric toothbrushes each say they were facing “financial struggles”.
Sisters Rachele Constantin, 20, of Lincoln Road in Peterborough, and Christina Costantin, 30, of Bellamy Road in Peterborough, were joined in the dock by Mariana Gheorghe, 35, also of Lincoln Road, and Marius Constantin, of St Paul’s Road in Peterborough, at Lynn Magistrates’ Court on Thursday.
All of the defendants, who were taken into custody the day before, pleaded guilty to theft from B&M in Lynn.
The court heard how they entered the store on Wednesday afternoon, picked out various items including Lego sets and electric toothbrushes, and stuffed them into their bags.
They then headed to the checkouts, where they paid for some low-value items and left without paying for the others.
They were arrested after being stopped in a black Nissan Qashqai, and the goods, worth more than £616.18, were recovered.
In mitigation, solicitor Ruth Johnson said that two of them, Rachele and Christina, were unemployed, but all four were facing “financial struggles”.
Marius Constantin said he stole the items for his four-year-old daughter, and Gheorghe, who works in a flour packing factory, claimed she finds it “hard to make ends meet”.
During the hearing, magistrates discovered that Christina Constantin had been in this position before.
She was previously arrested for stealing more than £800 worth of baby products from Sainsbury’s and B&M in Ipswich.
The group moved to the UK from Romania, and all but Rachele Constantin have settled status – though she is waiting to hear from the Home Office for an update.
Each was handed a 12-month conditional discharge, with Rachele, Marius and Mariana to complete 100 hours of unpaid work.
Christina Constantin, on the other hand, will need to do 200 hours because of her previous offences.
They will also each have to pay a victim surcharge of £114 and court costs of £40.
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Source: www.lynnnews.co.uk