Woman caught shoplifting demands biscuits at police station before kicking officer

By Charlotte Lillywhite, Local Democracy Reporter

A woman demanded tea and biscuits before she kicked a police officer after she was caught shoplifting items worth £420 from M&S and Boots.

Leah Layton, 45, of Thomas Lane, Lewisham, was handed a community order at Wimbledon Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday, after pleading guilty to three offences at an earlier hearing.

Layton shoplifted £119 worth of cosmetics items from a Boots branch in Richmond, before stealing £301.48 worth of food and drink from an M&S store in Kew and assaulting a cop in Wandsworth on March 30, 2023. She admitted the three offences at Wimbledon Magistrates’ Court on April 25.

At the sentencing hearing, prosecutor Suleman Hussain told the court that Boots staff said they saw Layton grabbing “a number of items” in the cosmetics area of the shop before leaving and “making no attempt” to pay at the till on March 30, 2023.

He said Layton was then seen in an M&S food hall in Kew, placing multiple items in her basket, before she “picked up a bottle of wine and started drinking from it”.

Mr Hussain said staff detained Layton, who tried to push them away. He said staff started to complete paperwork to ban her from the store, but she became angry and began shouting at staff.

He said she “started to punch and kick the wall” and used “abusive language to staff”, who called the police.

The prosecutor told the court Layton later refused to remove her clothes during an attempted strip search at a police station in Wandsworth and was placed in handcuffs.

He said officers grabbed her by the arms due to her aggression and attempts to leave the room and she then “demanded tea and biscuits”.

Mr Hussain said the assaulted police officer said she told Layton the station was “not a hotel where she can just demand things”, but she replied that it was “a hotel for people like her” and proceeded to kick the officer in her right thigh. The officer was left with no visible marks.

When Layton was interviewed by police officers she said she had taken the items for charity and was sorry for what happened, saying she would do better.