A Birmingham woman has been jailed after pleading guilty to a series of handbag thefts − with a haul worth more than £4,000 − in the city centre.
The crimes also led to a domestic abuse case being discontinued at court, after crucial evidence was stolen along with a victim’s bag.
Anne O’Donnell was arrested in September following thefts in the city’s Primark, where two teenage girls had handbags stolen as they shopped and tried on clothes.
O’Donnell, of Hazelville Road, Hall Green, was subsequently arrested and charged with the crimes along with two other thefts in the city’s main shopping district.
The unemployed 54-year-old first struck in November 2012 when she stole a woman’s handbag as she shopped in the New Street branch of Clarks shoes. The woman’s designer bag was snatched from her child’s pushchair whilst she was distracted, shopping in the store.
O’Donnell was also found guilty of stealing a handbag from a woman whilst she ate at a noodle bar inside the Bullring’s iconic Selfridges store on 1 May 2013. The 26-year-old left her bag at her feet, but fifteen minutes after sitting down to eat she noticed it was gone.
PC Mat Evans, from Birmingham’s city centre theft team, said: “O’Donnell is a serial thief who had been offending in the city centre for a year targeting women and their handbags. The distress she caused cannot be underestimated and she has remained unrepentant throughout.
“In one case a mobile phone was taken with a bag, which contained pictures of injuries sustained by a victim of a domestic violence court case. As a result of the loss the case failed to make it to court, causing the young woman a great deal of distress.
“In one of the other thefts a lady’s £2000 engagement ring was taken just days before her wedding. She had just picked it up from the jewellers after it had been cleaned but sadly the bride to be had to get married without her treasured ring.
“O’Donnell failed to admit her guilt until the very last minute, when she changed her plea on the morning her trial was due to begin.”
O’Donnell entered a guilty plea at Birmingham Magistrates Court on Tuesday 28 January, where she was sentenced to 12 months’ imprisonment and given a three-year Anti Social Behaviour Order, which bans her from entering any retail premises in the Pallasades, Bullring, Corporation Street, New Street and High Street.