A MUM repaid a widow’s kindness by stealing the heartbroken woman’s wedding ring, custom-made for her by her late husband.

Lilly Maguire maintains she did not steal the ring, cash and mobile phone from the retired victim. The 23-year-old of Bromsgrove Road, Droitwich was convicted of theft following a trial at Worcester Magistrates Court and sentenced on Thursday. Maguire stole the ring, cash and a black LGK 20 phone with a combined value of £130 from Shirley Sutton in Droitwich on November 23, 2019. In a victim impact statement, read by prosecutor Shafquat Reaz, Mrs Sutton said: “Lilly has betrayed my trust.”

The victim had fed Maguire while her son had also given her clothes so that the defendant had become ‘quite settled’ in her home. Mrs Sutton added: “I trusted her in my house, looked after her, and then for her to steal from me like this made me feel very annoyed to the point I never want to see her again. There’s no going back from this.”

The widow added: “Then there’s my wedding ring from my late husband. I can’t put a value on this as he had it made for me 35 years ago. This was of great sentimental value. As he died in 2015 it’s one of the few things I have left of him and of what he had done for me.”

She described the ring, which she never got back, as a gold band with hearts engraved on it. Maguire had no previous convictions. Maguire was described by the probation officer as living ‘a transient lifestyle’ and as having been a victim of domestic abuse although this was not a feature of her current relationship. Maguire, who was born in Hungary but came to the UK when she was three, has no National Insurance number and as a result has not been able to claim benefits. “Her father doesn’t exist to her” she said.

Meanwhile, the defendant’s mother who lives in Ombersley split from Maguire’s father when her daughter was 11 or 12 years old.

Maguire is mother to a three-year-old but told the probation officer she had ‘nothing to offer the child’. Maguire also suffers from anxiety and attempted suicide by overdose in January last year, the officer reported.

Magistrates handed Maguire a nine month community order to include 10 rehabilitation activity requirement days. She was also placed on a two week electronically monitored curfew between 7pm and 7am and ordered to pay compensation of £130.