Pair go on stolen card shopping spree - with toddler son
Matthew SparkesA Norwich couple used a credit card stolen from a pensioner to go on a spending spree - with their three-year-old son in tow.Matthew Sparkes
A Norwich couple used a credit card stolen from a pensioner to go on a spending spree - with their three-year-old son in tow, a court heard.
Terrence Bilverstone, 33, and Zoe McNab, 34, admitted at Norwich Magistrates' Court yesterday that they used a stolen credit card to spend �860 at various tills in Debenhams before the card was declined.
The card was snatched in a handbag belonging to Yoskyl Brackley, 77, while she was shopping in Tesco Metro in Norwich at around midday on May 22.
'I was calling out quite loudly 'Help! My handbag has been stolen, I've been robbed!'' Mrs Brackley said in a statement read out in court.
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Two officers from outside the shop were alerted and Mrs Brackley, who has arthritis and two artificial hips, gave them a statement.
The court heard how she has been forced to buy a new mobile phone and diary and to replace all of the locks at her home since the incident.
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'It's had me feeling very tired and stressed,' her statement read.
Bilverstone and McNab were not the ones who stole the bag, the court heard, but were given its contents by a third party.
Ben Brighouse, prosecuting, said: 'They accept that within 45 minutes the contents were being used by them,' he said.
'Whoever did take the handbag passed it on pretty quickly.'
The court heard within an hour of the theft the pair had used a card from the bag to buy a Nintendo games console, perfume, children's clothing and a vacuum cleaner.
A further attempt to buy make-up was declined by the bank following the numerous unusual purchases.
Richard Bayliss, defending, said the pair had not stolen the bag but had made 'very simplistic' attempts at fraud with a card belonging to the victim.
'An opportunity presented itself and they've been weak and taken it,' he said.
The pair also admitted to stealing a �100 music system from Marks and Spencer in Norwich in June, and McNab admitted attempting to steal �39 of bedding on the same day.
The pair, both recovered heroin addicts, were living in Lavengro Road in Norwich at the time, but have since moved to Farringdon in Oxfordshire.
The pair are due to be sentenced next month.
