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.
"I am recovering from bowel cancer and I feel as if I have been targeted. No one should have to feel this way when going shopping."
Other victims used mobility scooters and walking aids, and had disabilities, Manchester's Minshull Street Crown Court heard. One lost a treasured photograph of her late parents she carried inside her purse. All 14 victims were elderly women aged between 63 and 89.
One, aged 78, said the theft had left her fearful of people behind her. She said in a statement: "This incident has shook me up and is a total shock to the system. I have never had anything like this happen to me before. It has changed how I shop and I even warn other members of the public who leave their handbag in their trolley not to do so.
"I also now always turn around and look behind me to see who is there and look over my shoulder. I don't like anyone behind me anymore. It has made me really uneasy."
Another - a woman aged 63 - described Rooney, 51, as 'like a shark waiting to move in for the kill and steal my property'. "This incident has left me feeling sick," she said. "I cried all night when I got home."
The court heard Rooney, of Brackley Square, Derker, Oldham, has 45 convictions for a total of 144 offences - 75 of those for theft and 'other kindred offences'. She was first convicted 35 years ago in 1987.
In 2020, at Liverpool Crown Court, she was jailed for 16 months, suspended for two years, for five offences of theft all of a similar nature at supermarkets involving elderly victims, the court heard. She was also made subject to a four-year Criminal Behaviour Order, which prohibited her from having bank cards belonging to others on her person and from entering any Morrisons store in the UK. Five of the latest offences occurred in Morrisons stores.
Rooney - who sobbed loudly and covered her face with her hands as prosecutor Eleanor Gleeson read out details of the thefts - admitted 14 counts of theft and breaching the Criminal Behaviour Order. She was also sentenced for breaching the suspended sentence and jailed by judge Bernadette Baxter for four years, three months.
Ms Gleeson, prosecuting, said: "The victims of the thefts were all elderly people. It appears that is the way Mrs Rooney operates. The total amount stolen from the victims' purses in cash and bank transactions reported is £905. Not all of the transactions were reported to the police. The total amount stolen will in fact be a higher figure."
Shoppers were targeted at Morrisons in Rochdale; Aldi on Entwistle Road, Rochdale; Aldi in Heywood; Morrisons in Eccles, Salford; Aldi in Middleton and Asda in Radcliffe from January 4 this year through to April 22.
One victim, a woman aged 79 who uses a mobility scooter and is partially disabled, had her bag stolen by Rooney as it hung from the bars of her scooter. She said later the theft had left her 'disillusioned' with people.
Another - a 66-year-old woman who lost the photograph of her late parents - said: "I have been having nightmares and have not been sleeping properly. I have been very nervous going into shops, especially when it comes to paying for items. It has left me feeling more vulnerable when I go out and less confident in myself."
And a woman aged 76, who uses a walking aid and was targeted by Rooney in Morrisons, Eccles, said she 'thought I was going to pass out' with distress when she reached the tills to find her purse missing. "The staff had to get me a chair to sit down," she said. "I was really shaken up."
Huw Edwards, defending Rooney, said she accepted they were 'cynical and mean' offences and said she 'fell back' into her offending after the death of her partner in 2021. Mr Edwards said: "She was receiving Universal Credit by 2022 but she said that was not enough to support her children and that led to her committing these offences. She returned to a way that she knew she could get money for her and her children."
Judge Baxter called Rooney's record 'appalling'. She told her: "You cynically target old people as they go around supermarkets with their handbags in their trollies and help yourself to their purses. Every opportunity has been given to you over many years by the courts and by the Probation Service and for reasons that only you know, you have failed to engage in rehabilitation."
Victims, the judge said, were left 'traumatised and feeling vulnerable'. "You say you are not a heartless person," Judge Baxter told Rooney before sending her down. "I'm afraid that these offences demonstrate that there is a darker side to you that enables you to act in a very much heartless way."
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