Lucille Staite faces Gladstone court for trying to rip off Big W

A grandmother’s cunning plan to rip off a Gladstone Big W store backfired when staff cottoned on to what she was up to.

Lucille Patricia Staite, 49, faced Gladstone Magistrates Court after she tried to rip off a local Big W store. Generic image.

Single mum and grandmother Lucille Patricia Staite tried to fleece a Gladstone Big W store but her cunning plan came unstuck in an embarrassing way.

About 2.10pm on April 23, the 49-year-old woman entered the store with another female and attempted to dishonestly gain a refund.

The other female got an item of clothing off a rack and handed it to Staite.

Staite then went to a service desk with an “old receipt” and tried to get a refund for the item.

But “on the ball” staff saw that the clothing item which Staite had was a different size to that which was on the receipt.

Staite was not given a refund, she left the store with the other female, and police later spoke to her and charged her.

Staite pleaded guilty in Gladstone Magistrates Court on June 13 to attempted fraud.

Police prosecutor Jennifer Leach said when police spoke to Staite on May 20 about the incident, she was “very evasive and cryptic with police”.

“However (she) acknowledged that she attended the store, attempted to obtain a refund, and that it was a situation that shouldn’t have happened,” Ms Leach said.

The court heard Staite had no prior offending of this sort on her one-page criminal history.

Solicitor Rio Ramos said Staite was a single mum of three children and a grandmother to six, whose finances “were tight” at the time she committed the offence.

Ms Ramos said Staite had also suffered from a marriage breakdown.

Acting Magistrate Mary Buchanan fined Staite $500 and no conviction was recorded.

Originally published as Lucille Staite faces Gladstone court for trying to rip off Big W