A COUPLE who took their nineyear- old daughter on a shoplifting spree to act as a decoy were yesterday heavily criticised by a judge.

Serial con-man Paul Evans was jailed but his partner, Pamela Smith, was spared prison because she had never before been in trouble.

Evans, 40, was locked up for a total of 15 months for a string of crimes, and Smith, 47, was given a community order with supervision.

Teesside Crown Court heard how the Middlesbrough couple took the child on their shoplifting venture in Darlington on August 4, last year.

They were finally caught in Marks & Spencer after staff saw Evans handing the girl items of jewellery, said Jackie Edwards, prosecuting.

When their bags were searched, goods worth about £1,000 from Binns and gift shops Hallmark and Past Times were also discovered.

Ms Edwards told Judge Peter Fox, the Recorder of Middlesbrough, that Evans also had a folding lock-knife in his pocket.

Law degree student Evans was on bail for an internet scam four months earlier when he took his family on the thieving spree.

In April, he persuaded a wealthy woman to pay £2,000 for a Rolex watch he put up for auction on eBay, but did not have.

And on November 18, Evans stole a fish tank from a shop in Redcar, east Cleveland, after telling the owner it was for his son’s 21st birthday.

After fleeing from the store with the aquarium equipment, he led police on a high-speed chase before giving himself up.

Robert Mochrie, mitigating, said Evans wanted to repay his partner for enduring his mental illness bouts by stealing the jewellery.

Evans also told a psychiatrist and a probation officer that he “got a buzz” from shoplifting, but it was not done for monetary gain.

Mr Mochrie said his client’s obsessive compulsive disorder also led him to bizarre behaviour at cemeteries around the region.

Evans would often climb into open graves and sit for hours so he could feel close to his late father, Mr Mochrie told Judge Fox.

The couple, of Cargo Fleet Lane, Middlesbrough, admitted four charges of theft, while Evans admitted possessing a bladed article.

Evans was also found guilty after a trial of fraud by false representation and admitted the theft of the fish tank and careless driving.

Judge Fox told him: “If I thought that a suspended sentence would deter you from further dishonesty, that’s what I would do, but, regretfully, I do not conclude that at all.”

The judge told Smith: “It is a terrible, terrible example to set your young daughter. You make sure she doesn’t go that way.”