ARRIVING in the UK on a hollow promise of work a woman stole more than £600 of clothes from Ralph Lauren at the designer outlet village after hearing Swindon was a good place to go thieving.

But after being caught red-handed Constanta Focaru found herself in the cells and missed a court appearance for a near identical theft in Solihull.

The 26-year-old Romanian appeared in the dock at Swindon Magistrates’ Court on Monday morning where she pleaded guilty to the theft from the designer store on Saturday through an interpreter.

She further pleaded guilty to stealing clothing from John Lewis in Solihull on July 6 to the value of £750 which she had been due to appear in court for in Birmingham.

Focaru further admitted a charge of going equipped for theft after store staff discovered the bags she was using to conceal the designer clothing were lined with tin foil in a bid to prevent the security tags setting off the door alarms.

Crown prosecutor Keith Ballinger told the court that Focaru had been spotted in the Ralph Lauren store on Saturday at around 4.50pm where she was acting suspiciously.

“They could see there were a number of shirts with tags still on inside her bag. She was asked if she had a receipt for them and she said she couldn’t speak English. The bag she had was found to be foil-lined when the police arrived,” said Mr Ballinger.

Inside they found £689.90-worth of clothing.

Mr Ballinger explained that she had committed a similar offence on July 6 when she was also found with a foil-lined bag when she tried to make off with the shirts from John Lewis in Solihull.

“In interview for both offences she gave full and frank admissions,” said Mr Ballinger.

“She said she had arrived in the country having been promised work, however upon arrival the people who had made these promises were not answering their phones.

“In Solihull she had gone there with a friend with the intention of stealing and she would have obtained money from selling these items in order to buy food. She said she had come to Swindon because she was told it was a good place to steal from.”

The court heard that she had no previous convictions in either the UK or her home country.

Her defence, Kirsty O’Connor, told the magistrates that Focaru had been working for her sister in Vienna before arriving in the UK with £1,100 to her name. When she realised there was no job waiting for her she used the money to pay for lodgings up until the beginning of August.

The court heard that a friend from Romania was coming over to provide her with funds and to help her find work after she had been left in the lurch.

Sentencing her, chairman of the bench Michael New imposed a six-week prison sentence suspended for one year.

He also imposed an overnight curfew between 7pm and 7am for the next three months which will be monitored by an electronic tag. She must also pay £85 in Crown Prosecution Service costs and a £115 victim surcharge.