\u201cIt\u2019s really simple.\u201d<\/p>\n
The police National Retail Investigation Support Unit has identified Barton as \u201cone of the highest risk\u201d nationwide retail crime offenders.<\/p>\n
During her latest spree, on February 28, Barton and an unknown woman went into Rebel Sport and put various items in a basket.<\/p>\n
Barton then put some items in her handbag and left without paying, before going back in and doing it again. <\/p>\n
While Barton stole items totalling $698.94, staff recovered $89.98 of property.<\/p>\n
When questioned, Barton said she \u201ctook two pairs of scuffs and the baby shoes\u201d.<\/p>\n
In discussion with Cuthill, Judge Cocurullo didn\u2019t hold back his frustration at dealing with someone who \u201crips off retailers\u201d.<\/p>\n
Cuthill explained that while Barton\u2019s family circumstances had changed, she had been chipping away at her outstanding community work hours from previous offending. <\/p>\n
Judge Cocurullo said he would cancel those hours, but today she had to confirm whether she wanted to go to jail or stop stealing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just want one answer to one thing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen is she going to stop stealing? Can you approach her and ask her,\u201d the judge told Cuthill.<\/p>\n
Hamilton District Court Judge Noel Cocurullo is also the Waikato executive judge for the District Court. Photo \/ Dani Zollickhofer<\/p>\n
After checking, Cuthill said Barton didn\u2019t want to go to prison.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have had enough of young women who want to go out and rip off retailers,\u201d the judge told her.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s four months\u2019 jail or stop stealing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Judge Cocurullo said Barton needed to \u201cgrow up\u201d, and her issues were no different from any other Kiwi family juggling kids, but that didn\u2019t see those parents out stealing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just call it like I see it,\u201d the judge said.<\/p>\n
Cuthill reassured the judge that her client was motivated to stay out of jail.<\/p>\n
But that wasn\u2019t what he wanted to hear.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want her to be motivated to stop stealing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want her to be motivated to stop ripping people off.\u201d<\/p>\n
Discussing reparation, Cuthill said Barton was on a benefit but could pay it off.<\/p>\n
The judge then told Barton the money she received through her benefit was meant to go towards food for her child, not paying reparation for stolen goods.<\/p>\n
\u201cCut it out,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAny more stealing from you, I\u2019m your judge.\u201d<\/p>\n
Judge Cocurullo warned he would be monitoring her.<\/p>\n
He sentenced Barton to 12 months\u2019 supervision, two months\u2019 community detention, and ordered her to pay reparations of $698.94.<\/p>\n
\u201cMore stealing, and I will jail you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Belinda Feek is an Open Justice reporter based in Waikato. She has worked at NZME for 11 years and has been a journalist for 22.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cIt\u2019s really simple.\u201d The police National Retail Investigation Support Unit has identified Barton as \u201cone of the highest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":580134,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[285850,21972,138,1061,60508,5904,658,1452,3958,204068,285849,300,111,139,69,17096,57390,37410,19429,227292,6492,79230,155409,4733,4736,1324,13917,131,1455],"class_list":["post-580133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-barton","tag-benefit","tag-business","tag-children","tag-feed","tag-final","tag-goods","tag-issues","tag-judge","tag-lambasted","tag-lambasts","tag-money","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-paying","tag-prolific","tag-rather","tag-recidivist","tag-reparations","tag-retailers","tag-ripping","tag-sharlene","tag-shoplifter","tag-stolen","tag-stop","tag-telling","tag-than","tag-warning"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=580133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580133\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/580134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=580133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=580133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=580133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}