A drug addict was fined $500 yesterday after pleading guilty to stealing $315 worth of children's clothes.

Alfreda Diane Webb, 35, of North Street, Pembroke was caught stuffing nine sets of infant's clothes into a bag at AS Cooper's on Front Street on December 21 last year.

Duty Counsel Llewellyn Peniston appealed for leniency for Webb who has a 20-year drug habit and a long criminal record.

He said Webb had recently lost her mother and wanted to get help for her habit at Fair Havens women's rehab centre. Mr. Peniston also suggested she be taken into the care of drug court.

But Acting Senior Magistrate Carlisle Greaves said Webb had been admitted by both Fair Havens and drug court but had discharged herself.

He ordered her to pay $500 or face three months in prison.