A HEROIN user made a "trolley dash" for the doors of a Worcester supermarket laden with unpaid goods as part of a 10-month shoplifting spree.

Jacqueline Burbridge's supermarket sweep ranged from clothes to tea bags.

The mum-of-one admitted stealing five times from stores across the county between last August and March this year.

The 33-year-old, of Wyche Road, Droitwich, was first spotted by CCTV cameras stealing £30.09 of clothes from Asda in Bromsgrove.

And on January 18, Burbridge was arrested outside Safeway after acting suspiciously in the wine and spirits aisle.

Peter Parson said she loaded up a trolley with goods valued at £432 and told someone "this is going to cost me a bomb, isn't it?"

She said she needed the alcohol for a funeral because her mother had just died.

A week later, Burbridge, of Farmers Way, Droitwich, and two accomplices loaded shopping from Tesco in Redditch into a waiting vehicle.

Five days later, she returned to Safeway to steal more groceries, including tea bags, and on March 10 was caught making off with goods from a Tesco store in Worcester.

"She made a trolley dash for a car but was caught and arrested," Mr Parson said.

Burbridge, who has no previous convictions, said the goods had been stolen to buy heroin - but claimed she had been following instructions from others.

John Onions, defending, said she was now completely free of both methadone and heroin and had started to get her life back on track.

"She realises she has a responsibility to look after her son," he said.

"She is deeply ashamed and admits going off the rails. It's an unhappy case."

Magistrates put Burbridge on a year-long women offenders programme and ordered her to carry out 40 hours of community service.

She was fined £150 and given six penalty points for failing to produce her driving licence when police stopped her on October 15.