Zimmer-frame-using prolific pickpocket spared jail after Leeds judge conceded it was pointless

Christine Gavin, who has been jailed before for stealing handbags and purses, admitted a string of new, similar offences at Leeds Crown Court this week.

She had stolen the handbag of a woman out of a trolley in August 2021, then used her debit card to spend £340 through contactless transactions. She was later identified by police on CCTV. On July 2 last year, she was spotted trying to steal a mobile phone from a victim’s pocket at Cross Gates Shopping Centre.

On November 25 she was with an accomplice when they followed a person into the McDonald’s on Albion Street in the city centre and tried to steal her phone from her pocket.

Finally, she was again accompanied by another woman at the White Rose shopping centre on February 11 this year, when a victim realised her purse was missing and £80 of her money had been spent in a clothing store. Gavin was again seen on CCTV trying to buy items.

She admitted multiple thefts and fraud by false representation. The court heard that Gavin, of Meadowcroft Mews, Richmond Hill, has 206 previous similar offences to her name, with a criminal career spanning 43 years.

She appeared in court on a mobility cart, and the shop CCTV showed her using a zimmer frame, but Judge Christopher Batty sarcastically said that she “didn’t need it” after having stolen a victim’s possessions.

Little mitigation was offered by her barrister after Judge Batty said he wouldn’t jail her. Judge Batty said: “She has been at it all her life and is mobile enough to steal people’s handbags.

"I should lock her up but I can’t. She is not in good physical health, whether it’s as traumatic as it appears, it’s clear she has health issues.”

He noted that she suffers from anxiety, depression and unstable personality disorder.

He gave her a nine-month jail term suspended for 18 months and told her: “There’s nothing I can say to you that’s not already been said before. Locking you up isn’t going to do anything.”