Mother of two, 29, who sold stolen designer Mulberry handbags to fund skiing holidays in Chamonix, spa days and fine dining is jailed for two years
- Mother jailed for two years after selling stolen handbags to fund her life of luxury
- Sophie Ingram, 29, sold the stolen Mulberry bags from a tanning salon she ran
- The ‘prolific shoplifter’ took photos of her stays in hotels and spas to ‘show off’
- She was jailed after pleading guilty to conspiring with her partner to handling stolen goods at Leicester Crown Court
Sophie Ingram, 29, enjoyed holidays to the US, a skiing trip to Chamonix in France, a helicopter ride in New York, and had a house full of designer clothes and goods, a court heard
A mother of two who sold stolen designer handbags to fund holidays, spa days and fine dining has been jailed for two years.
Sophie Ingram, 29, enjoyed holidays to the US, a skiing trip to Chamonix in France, a helicopter ride in New York, and had a house full of designer clothes and goods, a court heard.
Ingram, who boasted about her trips online, sold the Mulberry bags from a tanning salon she ran.
Police found another 17 of the Mulberry handbags, which had been stolen in a burglary at John Lewis in Milton Keynes in July 2017, at her home.
Nadia Silver, prosecuting, said designer shoes, clothing and thousands of pounds in cash were also recovered, along with a device to remove security tags from items.
She said: ‘Miss Ingram enjoyed a high standard of living with little or no income to speak of.’
The ‘prolific shoplifter’ had even taken photographs on her phone of her stays in hotels and spas enjoying champagne and cocktails to show off to friends, the court heard.
Detectives also found a kilo of cannabis worth £12,000 hidden under a barbecue in the garden of her home in Leicester.
Police found another 17 of the Mulberry handbags, which had been stolen in a burglary at John Lewis in Milton Keynes in July 2017, at her home
The court heard that the day after she appeared at Leicester Crown Court to have the drugs case adjourned for trial, Ingram went on a shoplifting spree in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, where she was caught with three other women laden with £4,000 of stolen goods.
She was jailed after pleading guilty to conspiring with her partner, Luca Ernest Bullock, to handling stolen goods, as well as shoplifting from Next stores in Nottinghamshire and Mothercare in Leicester, in 2017 and 2018.
She admitted money laundering by allowing £46,000 cash to be deposited into her bank account that was used to pay finance on Bullock’s £9,600 Rolex watch and a Porsche Cayenne – which were seized from the couple’s home along with a VW Golf and five motorbikes.
Ingram had denied possessing drugs with intent to supply but was found guilty.
The ‘prolific shoplifter’ had even taken photographs on her phone of her stays in hotels and spas enjoying champagne and cocktails to show off to friends, the court heard
Recorder Dominic Nolan QC told her: ‘Your offending was done cynically for monetary gain to fund the luxurious and glamorous lifestyle you wanted to live … Honest citizens working hard for modest wages suffer when people like you conduct criminal enterprises fuelled by vanity and greed.’
Ingram’s barrister, Claire Fraser, said she had met Bullock – who is serving a six-year sentence for the handbag conspiracy offence and other unrelated offences – when she was a schoolgirl.
Miss Fraser said it was at times an abusive relationship and Ingram ‘thought she had no choice but to do what was demanded’.