TWO professional shoplifters who snatched clothing worth almost £4,600 during "dash and grab" raids on Kendal town centre stores have been jailed.
Roxeanne Leigh Connolly, 29, and 21-year-old Laura Leigh Rushworth made three separate trips to the town from their homes in the Manchester area.
In April, May and June last year they entered seven different high street stores with an unidentified male accomplice. As he created a loud distraction, the women bundled clothes into a foil-lined bag before fleeing the shops and piling their loot into the boot of a nearby vehicle.
The total value of what a prosecutor called "dash and grab" crimes was almost £4,600.
Mum-of-three Connolly, of Trimley Avenue, and mother-of-one Rushworth, of Ridgewood Avenue, both Manchester, each pleaded guilty to 11 theft charges.
They were sentenced today at Carlisle Crown Court, where Judge James Adkin gave each woman an immediate 10-month prison sentence.
"This is relatively sophisticated offending, and was professional criminality," Judge Adkin told the pair.
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