A WOMAN again caught with stolen goods from a burglary has been given another suspended sentence and let off with a fine.

Donna Osbourne, of Bayswater Road, Barton, Oxford, was subject to a community order and a suspended sentence when she was caught with three stolen bank cards and a stolen driving licence pinched from an earlier burglary.

Oxford Crown Court heard at her sentencing hearing on Thursday for one count of handling stolen goods how the 35-year old was caught by police with the items on April 30 this year.

The night before, the court heard, a woman had been burgled at her Oxford home as he slept, and the bank cards as well as a driving licence had been taken.

Two transactions had been made with the stolen cards - one for £151.90 and another for £51.90, but Osbourne was only sentenced for being caught with the goods and not for the burglary.

When interviewed by police she denied any wrongdoing before later admitting the single count at a plea hearing.

Osbourne had previously been handed a suspended jail term for two other counts of handling stolen goods, the court heard, and was in breach of the order at the time of her latest offence.

In mitigation, Osbourne’s defence team said that there was an element of coercion in her offending and that she had previously been involved in violent relationships.

Sentencing Judge Simon Wilkinson said: “You have had your chances and you have failed to take them. Dishonest handling is a serious offence, without dishonest handlers there would be far fewer burglaries and thefts.

“It is for that reason that the maximum penalty for dishonest handling is exactly the same as the maximum sentence for burglary.”

Osbourne was given a three-month jail term suspended for 12 months and made subject to a 12-month drug rehabilitation requirement and must pay a fine of £500.