A WOMAN has been fined after she admitted to stealing over £1,500 worth of perfume from a Basingstoke store.

Eglisa Ciuciu pleaded guilty to the theft of £1630 of perfume from Debenhams in Festival Place on January 13.

However, both the prosecutor and defence solicitor raised questions over a potential organised crime aspect to the case, with Ciuciu’s representative saying that he is “sure she is being told what to say”.

Prosecutor David Fossler told the court that it was a “straight forward theft matter”, adding that it had “hallmarks of professionalism” and was “well planned”.

He said that Ciuciu, of Chantry Road in Birmingham, had targeted “high value goods” that were stolen in an area not local to the defendant.

Additionally, Chris Curtis, defending, said: “There are some concerns why the offence was committed here.

“She has not been forced into it but I am suspicious that she has been enlisted and targeted. She is not saying that is the case but I am sure she is being told what to say.”

However, Mr Curtis admitted that he is not raising a modern slavery concern, whilst he told the court that Ciuciu denied being part of an organised crime gang and that she says she was not told to steal the perfume from the store.

The court heard on Tuesday afternoon that Ciuciu, 22, entered the Festival Place store on January 13 with another person, who handed her a lined bag.

Ciuciu was spotted by security officers on CCTV and stopped. All of the items were recovered.

In mitigation, Mr Curtis said that Ciuciu, who appeared wearing a green court and spoke only to confirm her details, was a single mother to a four-year old daughter, having moved to the UK from her native-Romania last year.

“She moved here permanently six months ago,” he told Basingstoke Magistrates’ Court.

“The father [of her child] isn’t helping financially. She is on a trial period [at work] at the moment. It is part-time-, but she is told she is going to be going to full-time.”

According to Mr Curtis, the shop assistant at a JD Sports branch “hopes to get her own flat in due course”.

“She is young, her daughter will be able to start school in September.

“She comes across as a talented young lady but unfortunately she has not done the intelligent thing here.”

Summing up, Mrs Woolford, Chair of Magistrates, said: “For the offence of theft from a shop, we are going to deal with this as a financial penalty.

Ciuciu was ordered to pay a total of £237. This included a fine of £120, as well as court costs of £85 and a victim surcharge of £32.