A mother-OF-THREE who spent £1,000 in two days with stolen credit cards has walked free from court.

Sarah Elbrow was put on a year's probation after spending hundreds of pounds on jewellery and clothes, as well as getting cashback from supermarkets and buying cigarettes and sweets, with cards she found lying in the street.

The 30-year-old, of Ainsworth Road, Park South, was caught after one of the two stolen cards was refused as she tried to use it again. She admitted theft and deception and, putting her on probation, Swindon magistrates ordered she pay £50 costs.

Olive Catton, prosecuting, said Trudy Warner lost the cards in late September.

She reported the Lloyds TSB Mastercard and gold Visa card missing, but was later told they had been used and the account on one was overdrawn.

Defending, Tony Nowo -grodzki said: "She is a lady of good character who has never been in a police station before let alone the magistrates court. She had started experimenting with crack cocaine and as a result there has been no end to her difficulties. She was walking down Victoria Road when she saw these cards, picked them up and decided to use them."

He said she used the cards in places with CCTV and it was easy to identify her once the cards were reported stolen.

"This was not a sophisticated crime," he said.

Elbrow, he said, was currently living with her mother and was clean from drugs. He said if she went back onto crack she would be thrown out of the house, leaving her and her children homeless.