Woman is warned: Stay out of trouble

9:50pm Thursday 4th September 2008

Comments (2)   Have your say »

A WOMAN who admitted going equipped for theft has been handed community orders and warned not to come before magistrates again.

Julie Vella, aged 29, of Walnut Avenue, Brickfields, Worcester, appeared for sentencing at the city’s magistrates on Wednesday.

She was caught by police in possession of a torch, a length of wire and two walkie-talkies near the Brooklyn Motors dealership, in Cosgrove Close, Blackpole, Worcester, in the early hours of Christmas Eve, 2007. When officers spotted Vella’s car parked nearby they found her sat in the driver’s seat with another man alongside, and Christopher Small, of Goldsmith Road, Warndon, sat in the back.

Small was due to attend but failed to turn up. A warrant without bail was issued for his arrest. A search of her vehicle uncovered the items, including an 18-inch (45 cms) length of wire which appeared to have been adjusted to gain entry to a vehicle.

Police then discovered wheel nuts and the door on one of the cars parked on the garage forecourt had been forced and its stereo removed.

When both were convicted at Worcester Magistrates Court on Tuesday, August 5, Vella told the court she had been asked to give her friends a lift but admitted not knowing why. Vella had also already pleaded guilty to handling a stolen stereo after she was stopped driving her car through Malvern by police in the early hours of Sunday, March 2, 2008. Douglas Marshall, prosecuting, said: “In interview Mrs Vella said the system had been in her car for about two months, ever since her husband had fitted it.”

However, two days before her trial date she changed her plea to guilty.

Mark Sheward, defending, said Vella had fallen in with people “more criminally-minded” than she was during a lonely period in her life.

“She knows she must not mix with these sort of people again,” he added.

Mr Sheward pointed out both offences had happened before a two-year criminal anti-social behaviour order (Crasbo) was imposed on Vella in May, 2008, banning her from associating with named known criminals.

Magistrates handed her a 12-month community supervision order for each offence and ordered her to pay a total of £370 costs. David Hall, chairman of magistrates, said: “We don’t want to see you before this court again.”