A HUSBAND and wife who tried to walk out of a Suffolk department store with a bag of stolen clothes have appeared in court.Magistrates in Ipswich heard former Army man Bernard Candy was stopped by store detectives as he carried the bag away, but the case against him was dropped when his wife Donna pleaded guilty to the theft from Debenhams in Ipswich on March 9.

A HUSBAND and wife who tried to walk out of a Suffolk department store with a bag of stolen clothes have appeared in court.

Magistrates in Ipswich heard former Army man Bernard Candy was stopped by store detectives as he carried the bag away, but the case against him was dropped when his wife Donna pleaded guilty to the theft from Debenhams in Ipswich on March 9.

Prosecutor David Taylor said the unemployed Candys of Fullers Road, Colchester, who have four children, went into Debenhams and Mrs Candy took several items to a changing room to try on.

He said: "When she came out she only put one item back. The rest were concealed in a bag later held by her husband.

"Store detectives found empty hangers in the changing room, and stopped the two people who both claimed responsibility at the time but the evidence points to her.

"At interview, she denied the offence and said she couldn't recall what happened but by her plea she accepts she did take the items. If she had been more forthright at the police station she may only have received a caution."

The court heard Mrs Candy had suffered from depression, anxiety and panic attacks for ten years, and after experiencing a panic attack in the changing room she could not remember what she had been thinking when she hid the clothes in the bag.

Mrs Candy was given a 12-month conditional discharge.