A FRAUDSTER has been spared jail after stealing and using a bank card and pinching items from a parked car.

Lesley Ann Murphy, of Museum Street in Warrington town centre, was handed a 20-week imprisonment suspended for 18 months at Warrington Magistrates Court on Monday, September 13, after admitting two counts of fraud, two charges of theft, interfering with a motor vehicle and breaching a conditional discharge.

The 45-year-old stole a bank card on Princess Street in Sankey Bridges during an incident in June, which was then used to buy items from shops on Lovely Lane.

Nine days later, she took a phone, cash and clothes from a Nissan Leaf on Cartright Street in Whitecross.

Her actions put her in breach of a six-month conditional discharge imposed by the same court in January this year, having stolen two collectables and a watch valued at a total of £45.98 from the Disney Store in Golden Square Shopping Centre the previous October.

Murphy was also handed supervision of 18 months with a rehabilitation activity requirement of up to 60 days and told to pay a victim surcharge of £128, to be deducted from her benefits.

Leon Sherratt, of Whitecross Road in Whitecross, was imprisoned for 18 weeks in July after admitting fraud two counts of theft over the Princess Street and Lovely Lane incidents.

The 36-year-old was previously locked up for two years in 2011 after stabbing a woman whom he suspected of stealing his cocaine.

Warrington Guardian:

She suffered three wounds around 1cm deep to the left-hand side of her back, having been attacked with a five-inch blade.

Sherratt continued to make threats after being arrested at the scene of the assault at his then home on Festival Crescent in Orford, saying: “I’ll slash her in the throat, she deserves it – I wish she was dead.”

Murphy was previously jailed for assisting an offender in connection with the brutal murder of Malcolm Crompton.

The 39-year-old homeless man was stabbed 100 times at a flat on Leicester Street in Whitecross May 2004 before being pushed to Sankey Brook in a wheelie bin, where he drowned in the water.

Stephen Wood and Philip Hubbersty were jailed for life with minimum terms of 20 and 19 years respectively after being convicted of his murder.

Murphy, who was Hubbersty’s girlfriend, cleaned the property – the home of Alan Warburton – while the three men transported the victim to the canal.

She was handed 18 months behind bars at Chester Crown Court in 2005 after admitting assisting an offender.

Warburton was found guilty of manslaughter in connection with the attack and was jailed for seven years.