A JOBLESS Romanian woman stole as she struggled to pay her way in a new country.

Simona Costache was given a community order after Huddersfield magistrates heard how she stole supermarket goods.

They had heard that the 28-year-old took food worth £27 from the Aldi store on Beck Road on November 5.

The bench was told that this happened just three days after Costache was hauled before magistrates in Birmingham for a similar offence. At the court in Warley, she was given a conditional discharge.

Bob Carr, defending, said that Costache’s case was ‘complicated’ because of her personal circumstances.

He said: “She and her partner came over (to this country) on a visa. She is entitled to remain but not yet in the position to obtain gainful employment because the paperwork has not yet been finalised. So she finds herself dependent, as does her partner, on his family.

“This foolishly led her to commit these offences in an endeavour to make some contribution to the family.

“Clearly this was the wrong approach to the situation.”

Costache, of Hemmonds Road in Manchester, admitted the theft.

She has two children currently living in Romania with their grandmother. Mr Carr urged magistrates not to impose a curfew because her partner’s Romanian family viewed the monitoring equipment as a form of ‘resistance’.

He added: “I have advised her that she cannot continue to thieve in this country no matter how little the value is.”

Magistrates gave Costache a community order for 12 months. This includes 80 hours of unpaid work.