A career thief with 45 previous convictions was branded 'cynical' and 'heartless' by a judge who jailed her for preying on elderly shoppers in supermarkets for their purses.
One of mother-of-five Sharon Rooney's 14 victims was an 81-year-old woman recovering from bowel cancer out shopping in Aldi, Rochdale. A court heard she reached up to a shelf when Rooney said 'can I get that for you?' When she got to the tills she realised her purse was missing from her handbag, with Rooney going on to spend £300 on her bank card.
The victim said in a statement read out in court: "This crime made me feel extremely frightened and scared by what happened. I was shivering and shook up when I realised my purse had been stolen. All my life I have felt safe whilst shopping however since this incident, I no longer do and now carry my bag at the front of my body.
