A WOMAN acted with a friend to steal more than £230 worth of alcohol from a Quedgeley supermarket to fuel her drug addiction, a court heard.

Nicola Jenkins, aged 33, admitted the theft from Tesco in Bristol Road when she appeared at Stroud Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday, September 14, via video-link from HMP Eastwood Park, where she was being held on remand. The court described how Jenkins, of no fixed abode, entered the store around 8.30pm on September 7 with co-defendant Lisa Cameron, who has since been sentenced to 90 days imprisonment.

Together they began filling a shopping trolley with items before CCTV captured them putting bottles of spirits in bags they had with them.

A store security officer apprehended the pair as they attempted to leave and found them in possession of two bottles of Jack Daniel’s, two bottles of Southern Comfort and four bottles of brandy.

They had wrapped tin foil around security tags on the bottle tops so as not to activate the store’s theft sensors.

In police interview Jenkins also asked for the theft of chocolate bars from the Co-op in Seymour Road, Gloucester on August 30 to be added to her charges.

Gemma Bond, defending, said the pair had made no gain from the theft and said Jenkins should be credited for her early guilty plea and compliance.

She added that she was currently on methadone in jail to substitute for her heroin addiction and was also suffering from other serious health complications.

Jenkins was sentenced to 70 days imprisonment.