Locker room thief sent to prison

Jeanette Fidler - prison sentence

A FORMER recruitment manager from Oldham banned from the nation’s leisure centres for stealing from lockers, has been sent to jail.

Jeanette Fidler (41) was given the ban in 2012 after being convicted of taking valuables from women’s lockers at gyms, spas and leisure centres.

Despite having more than 70 previous convictions, Fidler escaped jail by insisting she had beaten her addiction and completed a drug recovery programme.

But the mother of three is now in prison - after admiting breaking her anti-social behaviour order by looting another locker.

She broke down in the dock at Manchester Crown Court after Judge Bernard Lever jailed her for 12 months - leaving her mother to care for her six-month-old baby and two older children.

He told her: “Everyone has tried everything with you. It is completely unacceptable. I gave you a chance and you have thrown it away.”

Fidler, of Titchfield Road, admitted theft and breaching an anti-social behaviour order.

The court was told she stole a £300 iPhone and bank cards from a Saddleworth gym locker last September. She used one of the cards to buy flowers.

The former drug addict claimed she stole to pay off a debt.

Mark Fireman, defending, said she had started to put her life back on track and had been working in a call centre in Chadderton, handling people’s credit card details.

He said: “She had some responsibility in that job, but had to give it up following the birth of her child last July. There was no suggestion of criminal activity until September.

“She didn’t have an addiction at the time, having given it up, but she had a debt and somebody was pressing her. She did what she did to pay off that debt. This is a single offence on a single day.”

Judge Lever told Fidler: “I deal with hundreds of cases but I remember this case well. I told you that if you let yourself down, you will go to custody. I remember telling you exactly that.

Tearful Fidler wailed in the dock after sentence was announced. She begged the judge after he told her he had given her a chance last time:

Judge Lever told her: “That is the sentence of the court. You may go down.”

Fidler was sentenced to two years in jail in May, 2011, for stealing over £16,000 of property from 65 victims in just seven months but was granted an early release from prison in October, 2011.