AN 18-year-old purse 'dipper' who targeted elderly women shoppers has been sent to a youth offenders institute for 300 days by Blackburn magistrates.

The court heard that Shirley Maughan struck repeatedly in Blackburn, Accrington and Darwen, nearly always in charity shops.

Many of her victims were in their 70s and 80s and all of them were lone shoppers who didn't realise they had been a victim until it was too late.

Maughan, of Troy Street, Blackburn, pleaded guilty to two charges of theft from the person and asked for a further 11 offences to be taken into consideration.

Clare Fanning, prosecuting, said on the first charge, from May, an elderly lady had been in the NCH charity shop on New Market Street, Blackburn, when Maughan bumped into her as they were both apparently looking at clothes. When the women checked her pockets her purse had gone.

When interviewed by police, Maughan said she had taken the money and thrown the purse in a bin. She said she used heroin, crack cocaine and cannabis and had used the money to buy drugs. She also asked for two similar offences in Blackburn town centre to be taken into consideration.

In July, a customer in the Scope charity shop, Accrington, felt someone bump into her and when she looked her handbag had been unzipped and the purse removed. The manager of the shop followed Maughan into another charity shop nearby and she was detained and arrested by police.

She admitted several similar offences in Accrington, Blackburn and Darwen, all committed while she was on bail for the original offence.

Basharat Ditta, defending, said Maughan had few chances in life. Her mother had died when she was young and her father was not present.

"She was effectively adopted by a travelling family," said Mr Ditta. "If she was there she was there and if she was not it would not have been noticed. As a result she committed her first criminal offence when she was 13 and she has been offending since."

He said the latest offences were committed as a result of Maughan's addiction to crack cocaine and her involvement with the people who supplied it.

"She is gullible and easily influenced and got involved in a relationship with a man who is older than her and who is involved with drugs," said Mr Ditta.

"He got her addicted and then got her to commit offences to support that addiction."