A WOMAN who snatched a pensioner’s handbag from a bus prompting a outpouring of public sympathy for the victim had herself become the target of a hate campaign, a court was told.

Melanie Collier, who took the bag belong to a 74-year-old woman in an opportunist theft to pay for her drug habit, appeared at Peterlee Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday.

Ansab Shan, prosecuting, said the pensioner had mistakenly left her handbag on a bus from Chester-le-Street as she got off at Stanley bus station on October 12.

A woman who saw it handed it to bus driver and chased after the woman to tell her.

But Collier, who had overheard the conversation, took the handbag herself and said she would return it, before running off.

The bag was later retrieved,but without £54 cash it had contained.

In a statement, the victim said: “While I blame myself for leaving my bag there, the money is not small change to me.

“I saved my pension for my granddaughter’s birthday. I am really upset about the whole thing.”

Paul Donoghue, mitigating, said the incident had captured attention of community after an an online campaign had been launched to replace the missing money.

Mr Donoghue said: “Not only has some good come from it in that the victim has benefited from several hundred pounds raised, but flip side is you stir up a lot of bad feeling.

“A lot of people are understandably angry about this case, have then threatened to take matters into their own hands and started directing threats of violence and intimidation at her and to burn her house down.”

Collier, 32, who lives in the Chester-le-Street area, pleaded guilty to theft and was given a 12-month community order with a drug rehabilitation requirement. She was also ordered to pay £139 in costs and compensation.