A burgling mum wept as she was led to the cells for a jail term which means she might not see her father alive again.
Lisa Fletcher and her then partner Lee Owens stole more than £1,200 of stock from an independent shop in Maghull last year. Liverpool Crown Court heard on Friday that the couple were caught after an off duty police officer spotted them in a restaurant and recognised them from CCTV.
Ian Criddle, prosecuting, said the pair targeted Ryat Menswear on Moreton Way on November 21, waiting until the owner went out to get lunch before ransacking the shop in the space of a minute. He said they took £1,285 in stock from the shop.
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Police found CCTV of the pair but were unable to locate them until the next month, when an off-duty officer went for a meal at a restaurant with his partner. Mr Criddle said: “Constable Williams was off duty and he was having a meal in an Indian restaurant with his partner. As he was having dinner he saw Mr Owens and Miss Fletcher come into the restaurant and recognised them. He then left his partner at the table and went to contact police so that a uniformed officer could arrest them.”
However, before that could happen, the officer’s partner saw Owens try to pickpocket another diner and intervened. The ensuing altercation only ended after the police officer managed to get Owens on the floor before both he and Fletcher were arrested.
Amy Butler, defending Fletcher, said her relationship with Owens had caused her to become involved in crime and pointed to long stints in her earlier life without any convictions. Ms Butler said Fletcher cared for her father, who has been diagnosed with cancer and has refused chemotherapy due to other health problems. She said he had also signed a document requesting he not be resuscitated if he goes into cardiac arrest.
She appealed to Judge David Swinnerton not to send her to prison, arguing she had caring responsibilities for both her child and her dad. Owens was unrepresented but told the judge he accepted his guilt.
He also claimed Fletcher had not played as significant a role in the burglary as he did. Judge David Swinnerton said the fact Fletcher had burgled again after being handed a community order for her previous crime meant she had to go to prison. Stunned by the decision, a tearful Fletcher said: “But my dad is going to die.” She repeated this as she was led to the cells.
Owens, of Drake Crescent, Fazakerley, was jailed for 36 months. Fletcher, of the same road, was jailed for 16 months.
