4 days ago
West Midlands woman in Powys car theft wearing slippers
A mother-of-five has been told she will not be sent to prison for stealing a car and tools during an overnight crime spree.
Police caught Tarran Wilkes driving away from the theft in Llanfair Caereinion wearing her pink bedroom slippers during the early hours of January 7, 2023.
Mold Crown Court was told that the "easily influenced" 32-year-old was "not the architect of this escapade" and had agreed at a late stage to become involved in the thefts.
She pleaded guilty on the morning of her trial to stealing Makita tools in Ford, Shropshire and a Vauxhall Insignia in Llanfair Caereinion, near Welshpool.
Judge Simon Mills imposed a 12-month community order on the former West Midlands woman who now lives in Devon with her children.
"You played a significant role which has left you with nothing but bad memories and the worry of what was going to happen to you," he said on Thursday (June 5).
"You've removed yourself a long way from negative influences in your life and you've stayed away from cocaine; it's an evil substance."
Prosecuting barrister David Maidstone had told the court that Lee Phillips realised that he'd left his van unlocked overnight on his driveway in Ford and that a drill set, radio and kettle had been stolen. Mr Phillips then checked his Ring doorbell which showed a Nissan X-Trail SUV outside his property.
More than 20 miles away in Llanfair Caereinion, Adam Woolley's black Vauxhall Insignia had been stolen and used to steal the tools in Ford. Wilkes and her accomplice Chelsea Ross had dropped off two men in Llanfair Caereinion who later stole the Vauxhall in Pool Road.
The women were already driving back to the West Midlands in the Nissan X-Trial when police stopped them in Westbury, near Shrewsbury and found Mr Phillips' tools in the back of the car.
Following her arrest, Wilkes protested her innocence claiming that she had picked up Ross from her grandmother's caravan, followed by giving police different accounts about what happened.
Police were able to pinpoint where Wilkes had been that evening through mobile phone data.
Lee Phillips said in a statement read out in court that he was "extremely pleased" to receive his tools back which would have cost £500 to replace. However, the theft has made him "extremely paranoid".
Adam Woolley said the theft has left a "significant" impact on his mental and physical health with sleepless nights and panic attacks.
Defence barrister Andrew Jebb told the court that the case had taken a year-and-a-half from Wilkes' arrest to the first hearing at the magistrates' court in October 2024.
"This was not Miss Wilkes' plan," he said. "She was not the architect of this escapade.
"When she was arrested, she was in her pink bedroom slippers driving the vehicle. She agreed at a late stage to become involved, and she knows she never should have agreed to become involved and knows she will be punished for getting involved."
Mr Jebb added that Wilkes' had moved away from the West Midlands with her young family to Devon in late 2023.
"Your honour will have read the tragic events of 2014, and it was these events that in fact link to her very brief period of using cocaine," he said.
He added that during her journey to court she had separated from her husband.
"From this point onward she is likely to be a single mother again to these five children and will need assistance and guidance of the Probation Service because now her former husband may seek to renew contact which she most certainly doesn't want to happen," he added.
Sentencing Wilkes, Judge Simon Mills told the mother-of-five that will not be going to prison for the thefts.
Even though her behaviour was "serious", the judge said he had considered Wilkes turning her life around, bringing up five children on her own, no convictions since appearing in court and that it had been more than two years since the thefts.
"I'm not going to impose a punishment which you're not going to complete," he said.
"You live a long way away from here. You've just become a single mother. Your very straightened financial circumstances which are only going to get harder."
Wilkes, of Barnstaple, Devon, must pay Vauxhall Insignia owner Adam Woolley £160 for his work uniform which had not been recovered.
Wilkes' co-accused Chelsea Ross, of Mill Street, Willenhall, near Wolverhampton was jailed for five weeks in April for the same offences and handling stolen goods in January 2023.
