Mansfield woman who tried to escape drug abuse caught shoplifting

Lindsey Bowen asked a butcher who knew her for £59 of specially-cut meat at Morrisons, and she was watched on CCTV as she tried to leave without paying for it, on June 7.

She told police she planned to sell the meat to buy fuel for her Ford Focus, which was parked outside the Sutton Road store, even though she only has a provisional licence.

The court heard she had breached a four month suspended sentence, which was imposed in March.

Chris Perry, mitigating, said Bowen had a long-term problem with Class A drugs, and moved to Peterborough after she was released from prison in 2013.

“This would be a new start,” he said, but instead she fell back into using heroin.

She had started a new relationship with a man in Kirkby, and had been travelling back to Peterborough to collect a methadone prescription, but this was finally cancelled and she resorted to shoplifting.

Bowen, 38, of Paynels, Orton Goldhay, Peterborough, admitted theft, and driving without a licence or insurance, when she appeared at Mansfield Magistrates Court, on Friday.

Magistrates activated part of the suspended sentence for the breaches, and added one month for the theft, making a total of three months for her to serve in prison.

Six penalty points were added to Bowen’s licence for the driving offences and she was ordered to pay the store compensation, and a £115 government surcharge.