A DRUG addict mum who stole £2,000 from high street shops will not get help until she helps herself as any extra assistance would be a 'waste' of time, a court heard.

Kalie Blaymires targeted Worcester shops including M&S, Wilko, Superdrug and Next during a shoplifting spree and also carried out similar raids in Droitwich, Kidderminster and Stourport.

When she appeared over prison videolink Blaymires tried to claim she had not attended probation service appointments designed to help her because she was self-isolating due to Covid-19.

She said: "I have been self-isolating! I spoke to my probation officer about it."

However, appointments are now taking place over the telephone because of the pandemic and the chairman of the bench told the defendant: "Being in isolation for Covid-19 doesn't stop phone calls."

The chairman made the comments after being told by a probation officer that support had been there for Blaymires while on post-sentence supervision after she was sentenced to 17 weeks in prison on February 20 this year. The officer also said the drug agencies were 'still there' if Blaymires wanted to access support.

It has been the defendant's second excuse for the offences, the first being that her methadone prescription, which is used to wean heroin addicts off the drug, had been reduced from 70ml to 60ml in error. She began shoplifting to fund the class A drug to 'top-up', her advocate said.

The probation officer told magistrates Blaymires had 'not been engaging with her offender manager'.

"That tells me she isn't suitable in terms of probation intervention. Any further probation intervention is not suitable at this time because she can't comply with what she has got in place already."

She added: "A report would be, in effect, a waste of a report. There isn't anything we can do for her at this time."

Several appointments with probation officers had been missed, she told them.

We previously reported how in a single shoplifting spree at M&S in the city's High Street Blaymires stole £913 worth of cosmetics, also hitting Wilko and Next stores on the same day.

The 33-year-old pleaded guilty to 14 thefts in Worcester, Droitwich and Kidderminster when she appeared over prison videolink at Worcester Magistrates Court last Thursday, at times crying as she held her head in her hands in the videolink booth at HMP Eastwood Park.

In total Blaymires, previously of Windmill Close, Stourport and a female accomplice stole £2,190 worth of goods.

All Blaymires's thefts were committed in breach of a conditional discharge for similar offences committed in Stourport and imposed on July 13 this year.

In Worcester she stole an unknown number of vitamins from Superdrug just off the High Street between August 5 and August 26 this year. She also stole £95.75 of air fresheners and refills from Wilko, £28 of clothing and fragrances from Next and and £913 of cosmetics from M&S, all three thefts taking place on October 27 this year.

In Droitwich she stole £247 of goods from Wilkinsons, £138.57 from Boots, £119.90 from WH Smith, £34 from Peacocks and £37 from Savers, all offences committed on September 8 this year.

Meanwhile, in Kidderminster she stole £103 of toys from Tesco in the town's Castle Road and £100.25 of plug in oils and other household cleaning products worth £100.25 from B&M on August 17 this year. The prolific thief returned to the same Tesco on August 31, stealing £103 worth of toys and health and beauty products which included Durex condoms and lubricant.

Not satisfied with that haul, she returned to Tesco on November 2, stealing £116.85 of toys, coming back once again on November 4 to steal £153.99 worth of toys.

Blaymires has 20 previous convictions and was sentenced to 17 weeks in prison on February 20 for shop thefts.

Magistrates sentenced her to six months in prison suspended for 18 months and ordered her to complete a six month drug rehabilitation requirement and pay £250 compensation to the shops.