Two Liverpool women who travelled 60 miles to Llandudno in a hired car had within half an hour of arrival stole clothes worth £1,500 from three stores, a judge heard.

Chantel Collins, 32, a single mum, of Waresley Crescent, Norris Green, Liverpool, who admitted theft, had been chased by a shop manager but got in the car, Caernarfon crown court was told.

Police stopped the car on the A55.

Prosecutor Jo Maxwell said the women had shoplifted previously.

Collins received a nine months suspended jail term with rehabilitation and 100 hours unpaid work.

An arrest warrant was issued for Victoria Pitt, aged 33, of Greystone Road, Fazakerley.

Charles Lander, defending, said Collins’s children would go into care if she were jailed. “Miss Pitt contacted her out of the blue.

"They were shoplifting associates from some time ago,” the lawyer said.