A WOMAN who went shoplifting when she was on a suspended sentence has been jailed.

Claire Louise Jones, 42, of Wynnstay Avenue, Wrexham, had previous convictions for 169 offences.

Over the years she had committed crimes to feed a drugs addiction, said solicitor Gary Harvey, defending.

But in more recent times she had stolen to live because changes in the benefits system meant she did not have any money.

Jones admitted stealing clothing from Primark in Wrexham on May 8 and then meat on two occasions from the Co-op in Wrexham to a value of £180.

Ceri Ellis-Jones, prosecuting, told North East Wales Magistrates Court at Mold that she was seen rushing around the Primark store and placing items in a bag.

She was stopped as she left and the stolen items were recovered.

On two occasions she took a quantity of meat from the Co-op and left without paying.

Mr Harvey said Jones was an intelligent woman who had a lengthy record for theft crimes to support a drugs habit.

Intervention had sometimes worked and sometimes it had not, he said.

But the main issue in her life at the time of the latest offending was that her benefits had been stopped and she had been without money for some time.

"On this occasion she stole to get money to live," Mr Harvey explained.

Magistrates jailed her for three weeks for the offences and implemented a previously suspended 23 week sentence.