Drugs raid nets £9,000-worth . . . of tights!

Drugs squad officers discovered the haul in a search at the home of 44-year-old Cindy Clark, a court heard.

Clark, of no previous convictions but who admitted drugs offences, told police she was looking after the stolen items for someone she was not prepared to name.

Her barrister, Dermot Hughes, told Sheffield Crown Court: “She wouldn’t for one minute have the courage to say who had put them there.

“She was effectively corrupted by a third person.”

The court heard that 20 wraps of cannabis, worth about £200, were found in the living room of the property in Warden Street, Canklow.

Downstairs police found hundreds of pairs of socks and tights which had been stolen from major stores.

Clark pleaded guilty to handling stolen goods and possessing cannabis with intent to supply.

She told police in an interview that she did not go onto the streets to sell drugs.

She said she started smoking cannabis to help with her arthritis but later friends and other people came to her house and she sold them drugs to make money to go home to her native Scotland.

Clark admitted selling two wraps of cannabis at £10 each on the day of the raid in March last year.

The court heard that she had suffered abuse as a child and an adult.

Mr Hughes said: “She has led a troubled life and suffered terrible abuse at the hands of previous partners.

“Recently she suffered the loss of an ex-partner who was murdered in Aberdeen in Scotland and she had been expecting to travel back to her native country.

“She was going there not just to deal with the aftermath of that crime but to see family and friends.”

Clark, who had previously been cautioned for being drunk and disorderly and criminal damage, was given a conditional discharge for two years.

Judge Alan Goldsack told her: “You have pleaded guilty to handling stolen goods and possessing cannabis with intent to supply.

“You are a 44-year-old woman of previous good character.

“There are substantial unusual features in the background and you have suffered a lot in your life.”