Chesterfield woman steals handbag from railway station - then bizarrely discards it 30 miles away

Lyn Marie Shore had been sitting in the waiting room at Chesterfield Station on September 11 last year, waiting for a train to Nottingham, Chesterfield Magistrates’ Court was told on Monday, February 17.

She was captured on CCTV edging towards the bag, which had been left in the waiting room, before picking it up and initially heading to the information desk, then carrying on into the toilets.

She then placed the bag inside her own and travelled on to Nottingham, where she disposed of it and its contents in a bin, the court heard.

The bag and it’s contents, which was left accidentally by a woman travelling from Chesterfield to London, was valued at £760, but it cost more than £870 to replace everything, the court heard.

Realising that she had left the bag behind, the victim had got off the train at Derby and returned to Chesterfield, but discovered that the bag had gone, said Becky Allsop, prosecuting.

Mitigating, Denny Lau said that Shore, 55, of Bamford Avenue, North Wingfield, had picked up the bag and then panicked, eventually dumping it and all of its contents in a council bin when she got off the train in Nottingham.

He said that Shore had a long history of mental health issues dating back 30 years, when she first suffered from postnatal depression.

“Her ex-partner was going through a very difficult operation and she was travelling to Nottingham to visit him in hospital,” he said. “She saw the bag and picked it up, but then her anxiety kicked in. She went towards the ticket area to hand it in, but then her anxiety kicked in again. She accepts that she made a poor decision, and when she got to Nottingham she put the bag in a council bin.”

Shore, who admitted theft, was fined £167, and ordered to pay £872 in compensation, as well as £85 costs and a £32 victim surcharge.