A jobless woman destroyed £10,000 worth of bottles in a five minute rampage at Aldi because she "lost the plot" during lockdown, a court was told.
Barbara Stange-Alvarez, 36, destroyed hundreds of bottles of wine, beer and spirits during the glass smashing spree at the supermarket in Stevenage, St Albans Magistrates' Court heard.
She walked along the aisle using her arm to sweep hundreds of bottles from the shelves and send them crashing onto the the floor after the UK went into a second lockdown, it was said.
Shocking footage shows the floor littered with broken glass and huge puddles of alcohol after the incident in November 2020, reports Herts Live.
During the incident she slipped and fell on the glass and cut her hand as shoppers in the store looked on in shock, magistrates heard.
Prosecutor Clinton Hadgill told the court: "She made her way directly to the aisle where the alcohol is and proceeded to drag hundreds of bottles of alcohol off the shelf."
He said on reaching the end of the aisle, she went back to the beginning and repeated the exercise.
Stange-Alvarez, from Stevenage, Hertfordshire, appeared at St Albans Magistrates’ Court on Monday.
She pleaded guilty to criminal damage, racially aggravated common assault and a racially aggravated public order offence after insulting a security guard at the hospital where she received treatment for her hand.
District Judge Margaret Dodd ordered Stange-Alvarez to pay £5,000 in compensation to Aldi.
Ninety seconds into her wrecking spree, the defendant slipped and fell onto the broken glass, cutting her right hand, the court heard.
Reaching the end of the aisle again, it was said she stood grabbing single bottles and hurling them to the floor.
A security guard from another store came to the shop and was able to detain Stange-Alvarez until police arrived, according to the prosecutor.
Officers took the woman to the Lister Hospital in Stevenage where she kicked a security guard in the shin and hurled racial insults, Mr Hadgill added.
Strange-Alvarez, who represented herself in court, said she felt she was suffering from mental health issues and that she was not receiving the correct treatment at the time.
She had been unable to work during 2020, and she added that she "struggled because I was unemployed".
Ms Dodd told her that "lots of people" had been in a similar predicament during the year.
Strange-Alvarez responded "it won't happen again" and explained that she now had the medication she needed to feel "stabilised".
Passing sentence, Ms Dodd said she could give her credit for her guilty plea and she noted she had not been in trouble before.
She said: "You weren’t well at the time" adding that many other people had also been out of work and furloughed during the pandemic and had not behaved in such a way.
The district judge told Stange-Alvarez her behaviour towards the hospital security guard had been "upsetting and hurtful".
Stange-Alvarezwas given a 12 week jail sentence suspended for 18 months.
She was also made the subject of a Mental Health Treatment Requirement and a Rehabilitation Activity Requirement where she will work with probation staff.
The woman was also ordered to pay Aldi £5000 in compensation plus court costs of £85.
