A serial thief with a "horrendous" criminal record stole designer handbags worth more than £2,000.
Gavin Newton helped himself to a Gucci and a Balmain bag, worth a total of £2,300, from the Flannels store in Newcastle city centre by removing security tags and handing them to an accomplice, who hid them in her own bag, on December 21 last year.
Newcastle Crown Court heard he was caught after CCTV was checked due to discrepancies in the stock and he was identified from the footage. At the time, Newton, of Hudson Road, Sunderland, who has 211 convictions on his record, was on bail for stealing three handbags, worth a total of £379.99 from TK Maxx.
