SHOPLIFTER Becky Joyce led police on a quarter of a mile chase after hiding stolen clothing under her own, a court heard yesterday.

Peter Scott, prosecuting at Harrogate Magistrates' Court, said Joyce, 29, had gone into changing rooms at British Home Stores, in Harrogate, to try clothes on.

The court heard she put some of the clothes back on rails but walked out with items worth £22 hidden beneath her own clothing.

Security guards saw her and alerted the police.

They tried to prevent Joyce, of Highmoor Avenue, Moortown, Leeds, from driving off in her car, which was parked nearby, but she made off just as the police arrived with their blue lights flashing.

They pursued her along Parliament Street, The Ginnel and into Cold Bath Road and The Esplanade before they were able to stop her.

The court heard that at one point she drove the wrong way down a one-way street.

In mitigation, Clive Farndon said Joyce stole items to sell to feed her drugs habit, but she was trying to beat her addiction.

He said she had voluntarily gone to a clinic in Sheffield where she had had a heroin blocker implanted to stop the drug having any effect on her.

Joyce admitted theft, careless driving and failing to stop for police. She was made subject to a six-month community rehabilitation order, banned from driving for six months and ordered to pay costs of £115.