Magistrates send serial shoplifter to Crown Court for sentence

A serial shoplifter is to be sentenced at the Crown Court for 21 offences after Bath magistrates said they felt their powers to deal with her were insufficient.

Bath Magistrates’ Court

Louisianna Santillo, from Sedgemoor Road in Combe Down, has 28 previous convictions for 158 offences, most of them thefts, the magistrates heard on Wednesday 27th May.

The 45-year-old had been due to be sentenced last Wednesday for 17 offences which included more shoplifting and breaches of a two-year criminal behaviour order (CBO) which prevented her from entering shops within a mapped exclusion zone including Fox Hill, Odd Down, Combe Down and Claverton Down.

The list also included a knife possession offence at the Nisa Local store at Combe Down, criminal damage and a public order offence at Kewstoke Road.

When she was brought to court in custody, Santillo admitted four further charges relating to 2nd May: that she assaulted a police officer, caused criminal damage by spitting in a police vehicle, breached her CBO at Sainsbury’s at Frome Road, and stole groceries and clothes worth £470.05 from Sainsbury’s.

Defending Santillo, solicitor Jennifer Stetson said the defendant had been misusing substances in the last five years, which is the motivation behind the thefts.

Regarding the knife offence, she said Santillo had intended to take her own life on that day at the start of May and had not intended to use it to commit offences against anyone else.

She highlighted personal tragedies in Santillo’s life, including the death of her son in his sleep last year, and her mental health difficulties, and said Santillo is “desperate” for help to stop her pattern of offending.

Ms Stetson asked the court to impose a suspended prison sentence and said that if Santillo “messes up”, she will be back before the courts and end up in Eastfield Park (the women’s prison in Gloucestershire).

A probation officer told magistrates that help is available for Santillo who “really wants to apply herself”.

After deliberating, magistrates said they felt their powers of sentencing were insufficient, particularly due to the “worrying” knife offence, and they committed the case to Bristol Crown Court for sentencing on 18th June.

Santillo was granted unconditional bail until then, with the CBO remaining in place.