A judge has likened a woman who coached her daughters in shoplifting to Fagin, the character in Charles Dickens' novel Oliver Twist, who recruits and trains children to steal.
In Tauranga District Court, Judge Thomas Ingram told Maria Ruhia Milina, 32, that he took a dim view ofher "bringing her children up to act in a criminal way".
The Katikati woman, whose occupation was given as shop assistant, was accused of getting her four daughters aged 14, 12, 11 and 9 to put on up to three layers of clothing under what they were already wearing, after removing the price tags.
Late last year Milina, then unemployed, pleaded guilty to the theft of $137 worth of clothes from The Warehouse at Fraser Cove in Tauranga and was convicted. But when she appeared for sentencing in November, lawyer John Holmes applied successfully to have the plea vacated.
At a defended hearing before Judge Ingram yesterday, Mr Holmes argued there was no case to answer because Milina had not personally stolen.
The judge disagreed, saying evidence showed there was "absolutely no doubt at all" the mother was aiding and abetting her children to steal.
Milina was sentenced to 100 hours' community work and nine months of supervision.
