Prison sentence for Lisburn woman who stole socks from JD Sports
A Lisburn woman has been sentenced to 12 months in prison for stealing from local shops.
Aoife McDowell, 30, whose address was given as Woodside in Lisburn, appeared before Lisburn Magistrates Court charged with two counts of theft and one count of attempted theft.
The court heard that on January 23, 2025 police attended a report of theft from JD Sports in Bow Street Mall.
A member of staff reported that the defendant had been seen on CCTV entering the store, taking five pairs of Adidas socks, totalling £93, placing them into a reusable bag and leaving the store without paying.
She was challenged on the way out of the store by the manager, who asked to see inside the bag. The defendant refused and made off without paying.
She was subsequently arrested and confirmed it was her on the CCTV and that she had stolen the socks.
On February 4, 2026 it was reported that the defendant entered Tesco at Bentrim Road in Lisburn, took a trolley and filled it with items totalling £369 before leaving without paying.
On February 11, 2026, police were in attendance at Tesco on a separate matter when staff alerted them to a female leaving the store with a large trolley of goods, said to be valued at £993.47.
The store alarm went off and the defendant was escorted back into the store by the police.
A defence lawyer said the defendant has a issue with alcohol and District Judge Rosie Watters acknowledged “I would accept that she is vulnerable”.
On the charge of theft from JD Sports, District Judge Watters imposed a custodial sentence of five months.
She also imposed a custodial sentence of six months on each of the charges relating to theft and attempted theft from Tesco, to run concurrently to the previous sentence.
Ms Watters activated suspended sentences which were on the defendant’s record, to run consecutively with the other sentences, bringing the total custodial sentence to 12 months.
The district judge also imposed an offender’s levy of £25.
Ms Watters granted the defence leave to appeal the sentence, however she refused to release the defendant from custody pending the appeal.