A serial Cheltenham shoplifter who persistently stole from stores she had been banned from has been jailed by a judge who said "Retail outlets deserve to be protected from her thieving."

Alisha Parke, 31, of no fixed abode, was sentenced to two-and-a-half years imprisonment at Gloucester Crown Court by His Honour Judge Ian Lawrie QC yesterday (Thursday 18 July).

Parke had been given a deferred sentence in May to see if she could keep out of trouble but prosecuting barrister Alistair Heggerty revealed that she had committed numerous shoplifting offences since another judge gave her "one last chance.

"Since the deferred sentence she has committed 20 more offences and she has stolen from stores she was banned from," said Mr Heggerty.

"She has breached a criminal behaviour order on a number of occasions and in a 12-month period she has committed 52 offences, which is one a week."

Stores targeted by Parke included John Lewis, Superdrug, Tesco, W.H. Smith, Jack Wills, Oasis, Fat Face and The Range, the court heard.

Defending barrister Guy Wyatt said: "She has had a very troubled life. Her mother was a chronic drug addict and trained Alisha to shoplift from the age of 12."

Mr Wyatt went on to explain that his client had a very traumatic life.

Judge Lawrie QC told the mother-of-three: "Every disposal has been tried with you from community orders to custodial sentences and nothing seems to work.

"But retail outlets need to be protected from your thieving and therefore custodial sentence is inevitable."