A WOMAN has appeared in court for stealing air fresheners and sausages.

Lesley Symons of Holt Close, Crowle, admitted theft when she appeared before magistrates in Worcester on Thursday.

The 54-year old admitted stealing the air fresheners valued at £2 from Tesco Express in Droitwich on May 30.

Kamar Uddin, prosecuting, said the items were recovered so made no claim for compensation.

Paul Stanley, defending, said Symons had also been before the court last week for theft of sausages worth £2 from M&S.

He said for some reason the police had bailed her to one court date for the sausages and another for the air fresheners which was why she had appeared before the courts twice in a short space of time.

Mr Stanley said: "She did not commit any offences until she was 54. Her husband had a life-changing injury and she lost her job and fell on hard times and started to commit a number of dishonesty offences.

"She suffers from depression and could not put it down to anything other than that. It's not drink or drug-related. Police recovered the sausages from her fridge when they came to knock on her door."

The offences put her in breach of a 24 month conditional discharge imposed in July 2014 which has since expired.

She was earlier fined £40 for the theft of the sausages.

Magistrates handed her a conditional discharge for two years and ordered her to pay £75 towards court costs and a victim surcharge of £20.