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Sisters use pram and baby doll to steal from shops
TWO sisters stole thousands of pounds of designer clothes - by hiding them in a pram underneath a baby doll.
Stephanie and Pamela Pond used tinfoil hidden inside the pram to enable them to get the clothes out of the shops without setting off the alarms.
Their scam, described by a judge as a 'highly sophisticated operation', went on for months and netted the pair 3,000 worth of clothes from the likes of Ralph Lauren, Karen Millen and Monsoon.
Stephanie Pond, a single mother-of-three and her older sister Pamela, a mother-of two, were caught after police stopped their car and found the modified pram in the boot.
A search of Stephanie's home in Southsea revealed piles of stolen clothing, much of it still on the hangers.
Stephanie Pond, 31, of St Anne's Road, Southsea and Pamela Pond, 36, of Durban Road, Portsmouth, both pleaded guilty to one charge of conspiracy to steal.
Prosecutor Barnaby Shaw said: 'These two defendants, over a period of time, were involved in a large scale theft of clothing from a variety of different retailers from a variety of different parts of this area of the country.'
At Winchester Crown Court Judge Graham White gave both women an eight month prison sentence, which was suspended for two years.
He also ordered them to do 275 hours of community service.
He said: 'You quite clearly set up a system between yourselves to enable you to steal large quantities of clothing from retail shops.
'It was highly sophisticated and it was organised.'
The court heard both women had previous convictions for shoplifting but Judge White said: 'What I am dealing with today is in a completely different league.
'This was somewhat more than simply theft from a shop. It was a concerted activity to steal from many shops.'
Pamela Pond argued she would not be able to do the community service because she had to look after her three-year-old daughter but the judge rejected her claims.
'I simply do not buy the argument that you cannot arrange for adequate child care,' he said.
'You will do it because if you don't do it you will go inside,' he warned.
William Mousley, defending the younger sister, described her as a caring and responsible mother.
'This does not seem to be a case where a small retailer has been put to any particular undue loss,' he said.
Kate Freemantle, defending Pamela Pond, said: 'She is supporting her family but that's not an easy thing to do.'
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Saturday 11 February 2012
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