A WOMAN who dined and dashed has been spared an immediate jail sentence by the courts.

Joann O'Neill visited a steakhouse and an Italian restaurant in Warrington, ordering food but not paying the bill.

The 54-year-old was also behind a shoplifting spree in the town, as well as in Cockermouth in the Lake District.

The defendant was sentenced at Warrington Magistrates’ Court on six charges of theft from a shop, as well as three of making off without making payment.

The first incident occurred on February 28 this year in Cockermouth, when O’Neill made off without paying a £44 taxi fare.

That same day, she shoplifted from three shops in the town, namely Pure Touch Beauty, One Stop Shop and Fagan’s.

From each respectively she stole candles and wax melts worth £30, cigarettes and lighters to the value of £13.75, and two Joma bracelets and a candle valued at £49.72.

Then on March 2, she visited Bavette steakhouse, on London Road in Stockton Heath, where she failed to pay the £51.85 bill for a meal.

O’Neill was initially arrested on suspicion of breach of the peace after Cheshire Police officers were called to reports of a customer refusing to pay their bill and making threats towards staff.

This did not deter her though, as on May 4, she again broke the law in the town, pilfering two Yankee Candles worth £39.98.

Four days later, the defendant stole clothing valued at £130 from a charity shop in Warrington, namely British Heart Foundation.

That same day, she dined at Ask Italian in Golden Square Shopping Centre, where she again failed to pay the £60 meal bill.

Her crime wave ended two days later, when she stole £429 worth of clothing from Primark, again in Golden Square Shopping Centre.

Magistrates said that the offences collectively were so serious that they felt that only a custodial sentence could be justified.

It was said that the number and nature of the offences show that she is ‘operating as a professional criminal’, causing damage to businesses.

However, the court opted to suspend the sentence after hearing how she had a mental breakdown and had spent time detained under the Mental Health Act.

It was highlighted that the defendant is currently working well under a section, which the bench of magistrates did not want to interfere.

As a result, they sentenced O’Neill, of Patterdale Walk in Timperley, to six months in prison suspended for 18 months.

They also ordered that she pay £848.30 in compensation and a victim surcharge of £154.