A Portuguese woman on bail for shoplifting went on to steal $750 from an employer for whom she was doing house-cleaning, a court heard.

Paula Cabral Sebra Moniz, 38, has been warned if she commits further offences during the next 12 months, she faces being automatically put behind bars for three months because of her recent behaviour.

Economic hardship for the mother-of two and her family was put forward by way of explaining part of the reason for the crimes, which Portuguese-speaking Moniz pleaded guilty to in Magistrates' Court yesterday.

In August she had admitted taking groceries worth $39 from White's Supermarket in Southside without paying for them.

She was bailed for that offence while a social inquiry report was prepared.

At the time Moniz, of St. David's Road, St. David's, had no previous convictions.

But since appearing in court she was caught taking money from a home where she was employed as a part-time housecleaner.

Prosecutor Paula Tyndale explained at Plea Court the homeowner had found $500 missing from a sealed envelope placed in a drawer at his home and suspected Moniz may have taken the money.

He decided to put a second batch of money in an envelope and placed it in the same drawer but firstly marked the notes and wrote down the individual serial numbers of the dollar bills.

On November 14, Moniz was cleaning the house unaware of what the owner had done.

She did not know he was observing the house to see if anyone else entered and, once she had left for the day, he returned to the property and checked the envelope that had contained $700 only to discover $250 was missing.

Police were called and stopped Moniz nearby and found the $250 in her possession.

The money was positively identified by the markings and serial numbers.

Moniz pleaded guilty to taking $500 on November 7 and $250 on November 14 from the property.

Duty defence lawyer Llewellyn Peniston said: "She is from the Azores and represents a social class that has not had educational benefits."

Explaining why she had not fulfilled a requirement to undergo a social inquiry report, he said it may be because the concept is so strange and intimidating to her.

Mr. Peniston said Moniz was a mother and the wife of a hard-working man and added: "Underpinning all this is the economic plight of this lady and her family and there may also be an underlying sickness that leads to this behaviour."

Senior Magistrate Archibald Warner fined Moniz $100 for the shoplifting offence and gave her a three-month prison sentence for each of the November theft charges with the sentences suspended for 12 months.