Falmouth benefits boob op mum jailed for shoplifting
5:30pm Friday 8th June 2012 in Falmouth/Penryn
Falmouth benefits boob op mum jailed for shoplifting
A MOTHER of five who sparked outrage after spending her benefit money on a breast enlargement operation has been sent to prison for 16 weeks.
Kelly Fannin embarked on a spate of shoplifting which netted her nearly £3,000 from shops in Falmouth and Truro.
Fannin, 34, of Kerensa Green, Falmouth, pleaded guilty to stealing shaver equipment and an electric tooth brush worth £640 from Boots in Truro on February 10 and guilty to stealing cosmetics worth £150 from Boots in Falmouth on May 6. She also asked for four other shoplifting offences including stealing perfume worth £1,200 to be taken into account.
Alison May for the CPS said she had committed some of the offences in company with another person and on one occasion when small children were with her.
She had been seen de-tagging items before leaving without paying for goods.
She had been recognised by staff and also caught on CCTV committing offences. She had previous convictions including at crown court for handling stolen goods in April last year.
Jeremy Leaning, her solicitor, said she seemed to have turned away from shoplifting which characterized her earlier record and suggested that to a degree a suspended sentence order imposed on her had proved successful.
These recent offences were prompted by financial difficulties. She lived with her family of five children in private rented accommodation and was struggling to make rent payments with a further problem after two incidents of damage by her children which she needed to pay for as she did not want to put her tenancy in any further jeopardy.
“She resorted to her past behaviour to try and get herself some money” he said. She was well known to store staff and store detectives in Truro and all the offences had been caught on CCTV which led to her being traced.
Two years ago she told a magazine that she used the £29,000 benefit payments she received to care for her children to pay for a £4,500 breast enlargement.
Last year she was sentenced to a five-month curfew and fined £100 at Truro Crown Court today after having previously admitted handling stolen goods.
At the time recorder John Williams told her she had come perilously close to prison.
