A JUDGE has launched an attack on the "stupid and ridiculous" policy of issuing police penalty notices to persistent thieves.

It followed an £80 on-the-spot fine being given to a 46-year-old supermarket pickpocket from Folkestone with a string of previous convictions.

Judge Timothy Nash blasted the authorities for adopting a "namby-pamby, politically correct" approach to cracking down on stealing.

He said: "The issue of a penalty notice ticket for the criminal offence of shoplifting is controversial as a device... It is stupidity in practice.

"It is a ridiculous approach to dishonesty because it’s unfair as far as the community is concerned.

"It means, not infrequently, that people don’t have their difficulties addressed by a court, which is better able to deal with shoplifters than anybody issuing what is in effect a parking ticket.

"One day we will all wake up to the namby-pamby politically correct approach that for economic reasons seems to be adopted to save the police the paperwork – instead of letting them get on and do their job."

Canterbury Crown Court heard how Ann Gilheaney, from Keyes Place, Folkestone, has a criminal record of 32 offences dating back to 1976, including many for pick-pocketing.

But two years ago, when she was arrested for a copycat offence, the police then issued her with an £80 on-the-spot fine.

A year and a half later, she returned to stealing, this time with her daughter Roseanne Melville and the two went to a shop and targeted an 82-year-old woman out shopping.

The court heard Doris Atkins had gone to a supermarket in Dover with her sister Elsie in January this year.

Prosecutor James Bilsland said: "Ms Atkins placed her bag into the wire shopping trolley but when she went to the check-out, she noticed her purse was missing.

"She raised the alarm and security guards viewed the CCTV and saw that two ladies had come into the store.

"The older woman was seen reaching over Ms Atkins’ trolley into the handbag and taking out the purse.

"She put her hand behind her back and passed it to the younger woman, who took purse, with £10 cash inside and both then left the store."

Alastair Keith, defending Gilheaney, said: "She makes no bones about it. She says that she should not have committed the offence and that she is very sorry for it.

"She also does not wish to put forward any sob story."

Gilheaney was jailed for 14 months. Her daughter Melville, 29, of Broadmead Road, Folkestone, was given a six-month sentence suspended for two years and ordered to do 100 hours of unpaid work.

She was also told she had to pay £17.50 in compensation to her victim. Both woman had admitted the theft.

The judge told them: "This was a planned theft – you were working as a team."

He said that Gilheaney was "a professional thief" adding: "The time has come for me, on behalf of the community, to say: ‘We have had enough.’ You must be punished."