Sorry, this video asset has been removed.

CCTV footage of
Michelle Roberts stealing charity money

by Rachel Hovenden

A woman has admitted posing as a charity collector to
steal hundreds of pounds from charities for the terminally ill.

Michelle Roberts, 43, took cash from six shops, pubs
and cafes by pretending she was a collector from either Demelza
Hospice, the Kent Association for the Blind or the EllenorLions
Hospice.

On at least two occasions, the mother-of-four - whose
20-year-old daughter has recovered from acute leukaemia - took
her 13-year-old son with her and even said he was being treated by
the hospice, Dartford magistrates heard today.

The court was told Roberts stole at least £170
over four weeks.

There were 15 other incidents involving the theft of at least
£108 that were not read out in court, but were asked to be
taken into consideration.

Roberts was caught on CCTV going into The Ship Inn, in
Green Street Green Road, Dartford, on May 13.

Landlady Wendy Head was busy serving Sunday lunches
when shes struck.

Pretending to work for Demelza Hospice, she picked up the
collection tin leaving behind a fake receipt for £108.69.

Mrs Head, 47 and pictured left, said: "It made me feel a
bit sick really – that she can steal from a children’s charity, any
charity, that they could stoop this low."

And, on April 27, she visited the Falcon Cafe in Gillingham.

Stacey Holland, prosecuting, said: "She said she was a
Demelza rep. She had an ID card around her neck.

"She had her 13-year-old son with her and presented him as a
child that Demelza House had helped.

"She asked if they wanted to put something in the newsletter.
They gave her £20. She took the Demelza charity box and said she
would return the box but never did."

Then on May 5 she went to Laydons Sweet Shop, in Stone, claiming
she was from the Kent Association for the Blind.

Miss Holland said: "She had her son with her. She transferred
£33 to her own box and put a receipt in the box.

"She said the usual collector had passed away and that the
charity should have informed them."

Victoria Hart, defending, said Roberts had moved from south
east London to her home in Ascot Road, Gravesend, after she failed
to keep up the mortgage repayments and her husband lost his job
last January as a Royal Mail manager.

Michelle Roberts steals
the money from a tin at the Ship Inn, Dartford

She said this meant she had to give up her job as a care
assistant and leave her ill father in Abbey Wood.

Mrs Hart added her husband had been diagnosed with
schizophrenia and she had suffered domestic violence. He was also
said to have built up debts.

She said: "This is clearly an emotive crime by the nature
of the organisations she has deprived money of and there are
aggravating features.

"This was unsophisticated – she turned up with a home made
folder and saw if she could take the charity boxes."

Mrs Hart added that Roberts said she had been full of remorse
and put some of the money back in collection boxes in Morrisons
supermarket in Northfleet.

Roberts had admitted six charges of fraud by false
representation along with the 15 other incidents taken into
consideration.

Magistrate Kevin Savill said: "I am really at a loss for
words to describe how we feel about these events.

"I don’t think anything I can say now can express our true
feelings."

Sentencing was adjourned until July 11, with the possibility
of the case being sent to crown court.