Woman broke a window in Lidl Portadown and also tried to cause damage at Home Bargains and B&M stores, Craigavon court hears
A woman who broke a window in Lidl in Portadown, also attempted to cause damage at two other nearby stores, a court has heard.
Rachael Sherry, aged 35, from Clanmorris Street, Belfast appeared before Craigavon Magistrates Court via video link from Hydebank Prison.
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Her barrister, Mr Conor Lunny, said she pleaded guilty to one count of criminal damage and two attempted criminal damage charges.
The court heard a security guard contacted police on November 13 last year at around 2am, saying he spotted a person on the CCTV at Lidl in Portadown with ‘something heavy in her hands and banging on the windows’.
Police were given a description of the suspect and went to Woodhouse Street where they found the defendant, matching the description, walk passed. She told police she had done nothing wrong.
Another police crew attended and confirmed the window had been shattered. CCTV showed the defendant had used a trolley to break the glass.
Police received another call from the Home Bargains store in Portadown, saying that at around 1.50am that same morning a woman known to the deputy manager as the defendant, attempted to break into the store using a ‘long flexible item’.
Police were told the woman kicked the door at least five times. No damage was caused and the incident was captured on CCTV.
Police also received a call from B&M in Portadown who reported that at approximately 1.15am a female had kicked the door of the property several times. CCTV showed the defendant kicking the door and no damage was detected.
All three premises are in close proximity to each other.
Mr Lunny told the court there was an invoice for the glass pane which was £926.40 and not the £15,000 which was initially thought.
He described the defendant as a woman of “little means, almost zero means” to reimburse the damages, adding she has been on remand since the offences.
"She has found that period of remand particularly difficult,” he said.
"She’s a particularly vulnerable lady,” he said. “This may have led her to be influenced by a peer group.”
For criminal damage, Sherry was sentenced to six months in jail and for the two attempted criminal damage offences she was sentenced to four months on each, all to run concurrently, plus the £25 offender levy.