Third Time’s The Charm!

Linda Boyd, 31, was found struggling to carry home £500 of booze and cigarettes in a bin liner when she was stopped by police during the August disturbances.

She was hauled before Judge Andrew Gilbart QC, but Manchester’s top judge did not jail her because he accepted she was already in the city centre and had become swept up in the rioting. Boyd was given a 10-month suspended sentence at Manchester Crown Court on August 16 and warned she would be sent to prison if she fell foul of the law in the next two years.

Yeah. You can guess what happened next.

But just days later Boyd was again caught shoplifting more than £1,000 of clothing from a Marks & Spencer store in Altrincham.

And, proving that it’s not just her that isn’t learning a thing from this…

Boyd, of Cutland Street, Newton Heath, was spared prison for a second time when she appeared at Minshull Street Crown Court in September, this time receiving a 10-week suspended sentence.

*sigh*

Now she is finally behind bars after failing to attend her probation appointments.

Shocker, I think you’ll agree…

Boyd was told she would have to serve the original 10-month and 10-week sentences, to run concurrently.

Why not consecutively?

And the reason for the leniency isn’t because she had a spotless record, either:

The court heard she had a long history of shoplifting including stealing from the Arndale Centre, the Co-op and JD Sports.

But we know the justice system doesn’t see shoplifting as real stealing, don’t we?