Kettering thief jailed after she's caught by off-duty police officer

A prolific thief is back behind bars after she was spotted shoplifting at a Kettering store by an off-duty police officer.

Chloe Molloy, 33, was in the town’s Next when she helped herself to items worth a total of £80 on January 22.

But an eagle-eyed officer who was off-duty witnessed her in the act and, recognising her as a known shoplifter, called his colleagues.

Molloy, of Vermont Standing in Kettering, went on to steal items from the London Road Co-op on January 27, where she also committed a public order offence.

And the thief walked out of the Windmill Avenue Tesco Express with meat worth £22 on February 7 before being arrested.

She is subject to a community protection notice, banning her from certain areas in the town centre and certain stores in the town, but failed to comply with it.

Molloy admitted all charges facing her when she appeared before magistrates in Northampton on Wednesday (February 8).

She was jailed for 12 weeks because of her ‘flagrant disregard for people and their property’.

Magistrates ordered her to pay compensation of a total of £102 and a surcharge to fund victim services of £154.

In July Last year Molloy was given a suspended sentence for stealing from Kettering’s Next just weeks after being released from prison.

She had been jailed for 16 weeks by magistrates in March after spitting in a police officer’s face in a Corby car park.