Career criminal nicknamed The Magpie due to her love of swooping in to steal valuables is caught shoplifting for her 250th offence after giving House of Lords talk about her 'negative past'

A career criminal nicknamed 'The Magpie' has been caught shoplifting for the 250th time after she stole £313 worth of valuables - just two months after giving a House of Lords talk about her 'negative past'.

Thieving mother-of-three Jeanette Fidler, 51, who has 248 offences on her record, went on two theft sprees after she went to Parliament to talk about her 26-year life of crime.

Former MP and Prisons Minister Lord Keith Bradley sent an official invite to the former recruitment company boss in the hope her experiences with heroin addiction and her resulting crimewave might help shape future Government policies on drugs.

And in a picture posted from The River Room on Facebook in November last year, Fidler, of Shaw, near Oldham, Greater Manchester, declared: 'Me in the House of Lords for drinks and food what an experience that was xx.'

But just nine weeks later she was stopped by staff leaving Costco in Manchester's Trafford Park after she stole a PlayStation steering wheel and two backbone controllers for the console valued at £178.

She was further found to have stolen £135 worth of goods on an earlier visit to the Oldham Costco store. She later claimed she was trying to replace her 10-year-old son's PlayStation items which were stolen in a burglary.

At Tameside Magistrates' Court, Fidler pleaded guilty to two offences of theft was sentenced to a 12-month community order with requirements that she undertakes 100 hours of unpaid work and attends 15 days of rehabilitative activity with the probation service. 

Fidler, one of Britain's most prolific female thieves, was also ordered to pay £313 in compensation to Costco for the stolen items and prosecution costs of £85.

Fidler's life of crime began in 1998 after she lost her job as a recruitment company manageress and became hooked on heroin whilst living in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire.

To pay off her drug debts, she began preying on users of gyms and swimming baths - regularly taking wallets and keys from bags and clothes of unsuspecting customers when they were distracted with their children or taking a shower.

Police believe she has plundered tens of thousands of pounds worth of items during raids on ladies lockers at gyms, health centres, leisure complexes and spas across the north of England.

At one stage she was banned from all leisure centres, gyms or hotels in the UK under the terms of a Criminal Behaviour Order.

One victim lost her engagement and wedding ring and on other occasions Fidler broke into five different lockers in one swoop. Despite being repeatedly arrested and jailed, Fidler would come out of jail and do the same thing again.

She would trick staff into opening lockers for her by pretending a friend had left with the key or that she had lost it. She either sold the property or dishonestly used cheques or credit cards to go on spending sprees.

During her years of offending, police mugshots emerged of Fidler looking haggard and drawn due to her years of heavy heroin abuse which contrasted with her healthy look when she was not taking the drug.

In 2002, Fidler was jailed for three and six months and branded a 'wholesale thief' after she admitted 32 offences of theft or deception with 184 offences taken into consideration.

In 2011, she was jailed for a further two years after she admitted looting 65 more lockers and the following year was banned by a judge from entering all hotels with gyms and swimming pools for four years under the terms of an anti-social behaviour order. 

She was jailed for a further 12 months in 2014 for similar thefts and breach of an ASBO.

She was jailed again for eight months in December 2016 after she admitted theft of £600 in cash and a £500 iPhone as well as credit cards, house keys and hair straighteners from women's changing rooms.

She had also breached an ASBO following thefts from lockers at The Midland Hotel in Manchester, and the neighbouring Sportsdirect Fitness and Bannatyne's gyms.

In 2019 she was convicted of a burglary of a house while in May 2022 she was given a community order after she was caught selecting brand new items of the shelves at two shops and then trying to get fraudulently get refunds for them at the customer services till.

Last November Fidler posted a picture of the invitation she was sent by Lord Bradley and said: 'I was invited because I've used my negative past to change people and their lives by changing policies. I am still in shock and overwhelmed with my experience.'

The latest offences occurred between January 13 and the 24th this year.

Andrew Hey, prosecuting, said: 'On January 13 of this year, between 12 noon and 1pm the defendant entered the Costco store on Broadway in Oldham using a temporary pass.

'She made her way around the store visiting various departments with a shopping trolley, putting items in the trolley and a large handbag.

'She approached the till but failed to pay for the items, stealing items to a value of £135.

'The goods were Cellucor C4 pre-work out supplement, an XBox games headset, some Nurofen pain relief tablets and some clothing. The value of the goods was £135. Then on January 24 at 11.25am, she entered the Costco store on Traders Avenue in Trafford Park.

'She picked up a number of electronic items and failed to pay at the checkout and left the store. She was then confronted by the staff. She confirmed that a Playstation steering wheel to the value of £135 had been taken and that was recovered.

'However, a subsequently stock check showed that two PlayStation backbone controllers valued at £89 each were missing. Compensation is sought.'

Fidler's lawyer Roger Lowe said in mitigation: 'Shortly before Christmas of last year, Miss Fidler was a victim of a burglary at her home address. Among the items taken were PlayStation equipment belonging to her son.

'She could not replace these items because she had incurred debt in buying Christmas presents. In January, she went into those two Costco stores and took the items not to sell but to replace items that had been stolen from her house for the benefit of her 10 year old child so he could continue to play on his PlayStation.

'The offences were doomed to fail. To buy from there she has to be a member. She used her membership number to pay for items which she paid for at the same time she stole other items. It was inevitable she was going to be traced by the membership number she used from Costco.

'Not surprisingly, there was a knock on the door in January. It was the police and they arrested her for those offences. She pleaded guilty at the first opportunity.

'She is a lady with a long history for previous convictions from the late 1990s. She served numerous custodial sentences because at that stage she was addicted to class A drugs but toward the end of 2019 she became drug free and there has been a slowdown in her offending.

'I would seek to distinguish these two latest offences from the vast majority of offences she has committed previously which were to fund her drug addiction. She has now turned a corner. A report indicates that she is both drug free and she does not take alcohol.

'This is a lady who has turned a corner. A lady who now has her 10-year-old son living back with her after a custody battle fraught with problems. There is a new dawn on the horizon for Jeannette Fidler.

'She participates with an organisation called Revolving Doors which deals with the criminal justice system. There is a reference which confirms that she is a member of that organisation and she puts in valuable work to assist that organisation. '

Sentencing Fidler JP David Perry told her: 'We have listened very carefully. We do understand what has been going on in your life. You have got your child back and you are making progress even though there are some blips on the way. '