A PERSISTENT shoplifter who raided a department store of shoes, jewellery and wine has been jailed for 15 months.

Amy Kelly breached a suspended sentence she had previously been given for burglary and theft when she stole the items from M&S in Darlington's Northgate.

CCTV showed the defendant leaving the store without paying for the goods and she was arrested by police.

Kelly, 24, of Cumberland Street, Darlington, had 25 previous convictions, prosecutor Rachel Masters told Teesside Crown Court.

This included the theft of keys and other property from a partially sighted man after she distracted him in his home.

Paul Newcombe, mitigating, asked the judge, the Recorder of Middlesbrough Simon Bourne-Arton to be merciful with his sentence, saying Kelly had let herself down.

The judge said she was clearly a young woman with many difficulties.

Kelly, who admitted theft and the breach, was given 12 and three months respectively for the two offences, making 15 months jail in total.