A SHOPLIFTER who arrived at a Harrogate supermarket by taxi was arrested when the cabbie refused to leave the car park with her £180 haul of food and drink, the town's magistrates were told yesterday.

Prosecutor Chloe Fairley said Becky Jayne Joyce, who had travelled from her home in Leeds in the cab, tried to run off from Sainsbury's, in Wetherby Road, but had been detained by staff.

When Joyce, 31, of Hawthorn Vale, Chapeltown, Leeds, the mother of an eight-year-old son, pleaded guilty to theft, her solicitor, Stephen Hipps, said she had been a drug addict for ten years.

During that time, most sentencing options had been tried, including prison, but an attempt to make her subject to a drug treatment and testing order had failed when she did not keep her assessment appointment.

Mr Hipps said Joyce was now undergoing voluntary treatment and counselling, was making progress and seemed determined to stay off drugs.

Joyce was made subject to a 12-month community rehabilitation order with £45 costs and told to abide by a midnight to 7am curfew for the next six months.