A member of a group of people who allegedly travelled to Swindon armed with equipment to steal from TK Maxx has been sentenced. 

On February 2, a group of four including Viorica Paun are said to have travelled to the town from London equipped with a de-tagger and entered the West Swindon store.

CCTV allegedly shows the group split up, gathering items of clothing and passing them to one individual who used the de-tagger to remove the security on them, while also filling bags with other items before leaving and setting off the alarms. 

An employee at the store raised the alarm and the group were then found in Greenbridge Retail Park with all of the stolen items which amounted to £646.50 which were returned to the store. 

The four were due to appear at Swindon Magistrates Court on July 31, but only one of them attended - 37-year-old Paun.

Mr Collins, acting as Paun's defence counsel, admitted that there had been a 'degree' of planning for the thefts. 

But he told Magistrates, "For her part, she was taking items for personal use."

He said that the single parent of a 14-year-old was on very low income and that her rent was twice what she was earning which is what led her to join in on the thefts. 

When asked, Paun pleaded guilty to the offence, via a Romanian translator. 

When delivering their verdict, Magistrates said: "Ms Paun, I have listened to everything that has been said, the nature of the offence and your role within it, and I am concerned that you are going down a direction that is not going to be a good direction.

"But we will deal with this today by way of a financial penalty, the fine today is going to be £120, you will also need to pay a £48 surcharge, and £85 in costs, so you owe the court £253."

Two of Paun's alleged collaborators could not attend the hearing because they were already in custody for other offences elsewhere.

The third's defence solicitor told the court they did not attend because they were on a family holiday to Romania and would not be returning until the first week of September. 

The case for these three, who are yet to enter a plea, was adjourned until September 13.