‘Drug spiral’ led Caitlin Carter, of Oak Flats, to steal nearly $3000 of manchester, clothing

A woman tried to obtain a five-finger discount at a trio of retailers at a major shopping centre. However, her thieving antics were brought to a stop when she was busted with a trolley full of expensive items.

Caitlin Carter targeted three retailers at Stockland Shellharbour.

An Oak Flats woman who embarked on a high-end brand Stockland Shellharbour stealing spree before being busted for driving while disqualified has avoided a custodial sentence.

Caitlin Carter, 27, fronted Wollongong Local Court on Wednesday having previously pleaded guilty to three counts of shoplifting, drug possession and driving during a suspension period.

Documents tendered in court state Carter entered the Shellharbour shopping centre shortly before 4pm on August 22 where CCTV picked her up walking into Harris Scarfe with an empty trolley.

During a 15-minute period Carter loaded the trolley up with a range of expensive manchester, including two sets of Elysian cotton sheets retailing for $359 a pop.

Security footage recorded Carter leaving the store without paying at 4.15pm.

Caitlin Carter leant her fate in Wollongong Local Court.

She then entered a Kathmandu store where she tried on a $399 GORE-TEX jacket in the store’s changing rooms. Court documents state she brazenly asked a retail assistant for a different size before concealing it under her clothing and walking out.The court documents indicate Carter pushed her trolley of stolen goods into Myer at 5.26pm where she added a further 10 items – including multiple Calvin Klein jumpers, a SuperDry parka and Only Black waist coast – to her pile of pinched products.

Oak Flats woman Caitlin Carter was in a “drug spiral” at the time of the offending. Picture: Facebook

Carter was on her phone as she set the security gates off when attempting to exit the department store and when staff approached she handed back some of the unconcealed items, claiming she forgot she had them because she was “in a rush”.

Staff asked her to go through the gates again and once more they were set off with Carter claiming the sheets had been setting off other stores.

She was asked to produce a receipt and when she could not, police were alerted and attended to the scene.

The court documents state Carter initially lied about her thieving, telling officers she had paid for the items from Harris Scarfe and Kathmandu with cash.

However, she eventually came clean and told them she had not paid for any of the products.

In total, Carter was caught with goods totalling a value of $2785.

Less than two months after her stealing splurge, Carter was spotted by police leaving a known drug house at Warrawong with checks of her number plates revealing her licence was suspended.

Police flagged her down near the intersection of Cowper St and King St, Warrawong, where they located a small resealable bag in her puffer jacket which she conceded was meth.

The court heard how Carter was in a “bit of a drug spiral” at the time of the offending, which she was now managing.

“Your record is nothing apart from what‘s before me today but the stealing is quite impressive I have got to say,” Magistrate Claire Girotto said, before sentencing Carter to two-year community correction order for the shoplifting offences.

Ms Girotto convicted Carter of drug possession, but opted to impose no further penalty and she suspended her licence for a further three months for driving while disqualified.