Brit shoplifter’s sentence put off so she can go on holiday

LONDON - A shoplifter in Britain, who mowed down a policeman in her bid to escape, has been allowed to take a pre-booked seven-week holiday to Australia before she is sentenced.

Sapphia Da-Silva was spotted shoplifting at a Gap store and was followed to her car by two police community support officers, and while attempting to escape, she hit an empty pushchair and then PCSO Daniel Smith flinging him 5ft in the air.

Her case had been adjourned for pre-sentence reports, and a sentencing hearing would have likely been held in mid-December.

But the mother-of-two’s planned seven-week trip Down Under, on a visa, is from November 28 to January 15 so Ashford magistrates agreed to adjourn the date until January 31.

“She wants to go to Australia and take her mother and children to see her nan,” the Daily Mail quoted Nigel Numas, for Da-Silva, as saying.

Numas explained that Da-Silva cared for her mentally ill mother, as well as her two children, a six-year-old daughter and four-year-old son.

“We are dealing with something extremely serious. Is it relevant for your client to go on holiday? There is also a victim who is off sick and has been seriously injured,” chairman of the bench Anne Norris told him.

Norris asked for authentication of the trip and Numas said a clinical team had approved it.

Magistrates studied documentation before agreeing to the longer adjournment. (ANI)