A WOMAN with a drug problem who stole alcohol and other items from a Worcester supermarket went straight from court to a residential centre for addiction treatment.

Leanne Croke-Loveridge, aged 35, pleaded guilty to six charges of theft from a shop when she appeared at Worcester Magistrates Court yesterday.

The offences all took place at Waitrose on London Road, and started on June 27, when she stole alcohol worth £225.

On July 10, she stole alcohol worth £73, and returned again to the shop on July 13, when she stole plant pots worth £250, and on July 14 when she stole alcohol worth £213.98.

On July 20, she stole alcohol worth £153, and on August 30, alcohol worth £84.

In the July 20 incident, Croke-Loveridge, of Newtown Road, Worcester, was accosted by shop security guards, but a man intervened and she escaped.

The court heard that Croke-Loveridge has 35 previous convictions relating to 59 offences, many of them thefts from shops.

Susan Duncan, for Croke-Loveridge, said that her client had difficulty remembering the offences, but when she was shown CCTV footage of the thefts, readily admitted to them.

She said Croke-Loveridge, had a long-standing drug problem, and after a spell off drugs, began using them again in 2017, initially crack cocaine, and then moving on to heroin last year.

She has secured a place in a residential treatment centre, whose staff were in court ready to take her there.

Magistrates sentenced her to a 12-month community order, with a condition that she had to stay at the treatment centre for the full seven-week course.

She was also told to pay £725.98 compensation for the stolen goods, most of which were unrecovered.