A HEROIN addicted mother was given a chance to turn her self around for the sake of her child when she appeared before Swindon magistrates.

Shelley Corless, 25, of Cranmore Avenue, Park South, admitted charges of stealing a purse containing £340, assaulting a police officer, obtaining property by deception, breaching a drug treatment and testing order and three counts of failing to surrender to bail.

Her solicitor Rob Ross said: "She wants to prove she isn't a junkie parent any longer."

He told the bench she had become motivated to get herself off drugs and did not want her young son to grow up seeing her as an addict.

She was given a rehabilitation order for 18 months and ordered her to attend the Think First programme.

She was also told to pay £340 compensation to the theft victim, £100 to the WPC she assaulted and £5.50 to Tesco.