THREE women carried out a series of high-value supermarket thefts.

Blackburn magistrates heard on one occasion the women had a child with them and one of them pretended to faint while the others left with two trolleys full of goods.

Lena Lucie Lee, 32, and Rebecca Young, 36, both of Oakhill Caravan Park, Lower Eccleshill Road, Darwen, both pleaded guilty to theft of miscellaneous items worth £515 from B&M Bargains, theft of food items worth £295 from Tesco and theft of goods of a value unknown from the same store.

They were both fined £120 which was set against a night they had spent in custody and ordered to pay £200 compensation, £85 costs and £34 victim surcharge.

Laura Peers, prosecuting, said on each occasion the women had filled two trolleys and then used the self-scan facility to scan some of the items but not all of them.

In B&M when one of the women fell to the ground as if she had fainted the other two pushed the trolleys out of the store.

Colleen Dickinson-Jones, defending, said neither of her clients had any previous convictions.

"It is hard to understand why, at their ages, they have got involved in this spate of supermarket thefts," said Mrs Dickinson-Jones.