Cumbrian woman jailed for stealing from charity box and assaulting female police officer

A shoplifter is behind bars after she stole a charity box from a West Cumbria branch of the British Heart Foundation.

Kimberley Bennewith, 35, pleaded guilty to a total of three charges when she appeared in front of magistrates at Carlisle’s Rickergate court.

Bennewith admitted stealing the charity box and contents with an unknown value from the British Heart Foundation’s Pow Street premises in Workington on Thursday, 13 June.

Bennewith, of Birks Road, Cleator Moor, further admitted assaulting an emergency worker — a female police constable — on the same date.

She also admitted breaching a criminal behaviour order (CBO) by entering a Subway store in Workington last Thursday.

That CBO had been imposed only two days earlier, on Tuesday of last week at Workington Magistrates’ Court.

This was at the request of police in a bid to curb Bennewith’s offending, and to protect businesses and members of the public.

Bennewith had admitted stealing alcohol, meats and household items totalling more than £850 from a Sainsbury’s store in Carlisle; and a theft from a city Tesco supermarket — all on separate dates in July last year.

For her latest criminal offending, in Workington, she was handed an immediate jail sentence totalling 24 weeks.

Magistrates concluded that only immediate imprisonment could be justified as Bennewith had stolen from a charity, while subject to a court order which had been imposed days earlier and in view of a poor criminal record featuring more than 150 offences.

This includes previous charity box thefts.

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