Hungry woman gorged on McDonald's after Leeds charity-house break in
A peckish burglar stole a bank card during a house burglary before splurging £40 on food in a nearby McDonald’s.
Leanne Pearce targeted the home of a vulnerable person in the middle of the night, before heading for the fast-food restaurant on Albion Street in Leeds city centre.
The 42-year-old recently appeared at Leeds Crown Court via a video link from HMP New Hall where she admitted burglary and two counts of fraud.
She has multiple previous convictions and was out of prison on licence at the time.
The court heard that Pearce found an unlocked door at a charity residence on Lovell Park Road near Leeds city centre.
She got into a flat where the resident was asleep.
He woke up hours later to find the door open. His bank card and mobile was missing, prosecutor Zanisha Herbert said.
During those hours he was asleep, Pearce used the the card at McDonald’s, then tried at a One Stop shop.
She was recognised on the CCTV and later arrested, but gave no comments during her police interview.
Pearce, of no fixed address, has 26 previous convictions for 74 offences.
They include robbery and burglaries. She was jailed in 2022 for eight years and was freed on licence in April of last year.
Mitigating, Lea Levine conceded that the three-strike mandatory minimum jail term for burglaries applied to Pearce.
She said she had been working as a sex worker that night when she “opportunistically” tried the door.
Ms Levine said Pearce had managed to free herself of her heroin addiction, but had returned to cocaine use.
She said at the time Pearce had not eaten for “the best part of two or three days”.
She added: “That’s the motivation for her offending. It offers a little bit of context.
“She knows she has let herself down, she regrets her offending and understands the impact her actions have had.”
She added that she not only bought food for herself, but for a group of homeless men outside McDonald’s.
She said she tried to buy groceries in One Stop but the card was declined.
Ms Levine said Pearce was recalled until 2030 and suspects she may also be pregnant.
The judge, Recorder Guy Kearl KC, gave her the minimum three-year jail term as a third-strike burglar.