Cost-of-living pressures led to two people to shoplift huge amounts of food in Mount Gambier, court hears

Two supermarket shoplifters have blamed the cost-of-living crisis after stealing a combined $1650 of food - one saying he was “eating out of bins”.

Two Mount Gambier people have been sentenced for shoplifting large amount of groceries from supermarkets, with a court hearing they blamed cost-of-living pressures.

Amber-Jane Michelle Thorp, 34, pleaded guilty to assisting another woman with stealing $1489.86 worth of groceries from Coles in May 2023.

Mount Gambier Magistrates Court heard she filled a trolley with 189 items while her accomplice waited by the entry gates to collect the trolley from her when she was done.

A prosecutor said her accomplice was planning to sell half of the groceries for drug money, while Thorp intended to keep her share for her three kids, two of which have special needs.

Her lawyer said Ms Thorp was an unemployed single parent struggling with the cost of living, which led her to resort to offending.

Her lawyer also said her family frequently appears before the Mount Gambier court and “this kind of offending is in her genes and she regrets her actions”.

Ms Koula Kossiavelos said she “doesn’t gel” with cost-of-living pressures being used to justify “this level of greed”.

“This is not a few chocolate bars, this is $1489.86 worth of groceries,” Ms Kossiavelos said.

“I’m not persuaded that this amount is a necessity in these circumstances.”

Thorp’s lawyer requested her client to be sentenced without conviction but Ms Kossiavelos said “without conviction is not the right message to send to the community”.

She was sentenced to a 12-month good behaviour bond.

Meanwhile, Graham John Barker, 59, also pleaded guilty after being arrested in June 2023 for stealing a trolley full of groceries from Woolworths two months earlier in April.

The Mount Gambier Magistrates Court heard CCTV footage of the incident showed the man exiting Woolworths without paying via the entry gates with allegedly $150 worth of groceries consisting of frozen meals, meat packs, a rotisserie chicken and a loaf of bread.

His lawyer said Barker, who lives alone with his dog in a house provided by Housing SA, stole the groceries because he had no money and hadn’t eaten for several days.

“He was eating out of bins kept out the back of supermarkets,” his lawyer said. “But then the supermarkets put padlocks on the bins and he was no longer able to get food from there.”

The court heard Barker had spent a lot of his life in custody and was struggling to adjust to life outside of prison.

His lawyer said in 2019 he purposely reoffended by dishonestly taking property from a retailer in an attempt to be reinstitutionalised. He was imprisoned for nine days following that attempt.

After his release in 2019, the court heard Barker was able to find housing via Housing SA, got his dog and “was doing okay” until he stopped receiving “pandemic payments” and eventually ran out of money for food.

His lawyer said since his 2023 offending, Barker “has learnt where to go to get food when he can’t afford to purchase it” and “regrets his actions on that day and does not wish to go back to prison”.

Ms Kossiavelos said it was clear the man’s offending was “a crime of necessity, not greed” and took into consideration “that (he has) stayed out of trouble since,” and sentenced him to a 12-month good behaviour bond.