Kara Racuoco (Image: South Wales Police)
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A woman who twice pulled out a needle on security staff at a Llanelli supermarket while stealing has been jailed for four years.
Kara Racuoco, aged 41 and of no fixed abode, was sentenced at Swansea Crown Court after admitting two counts of robbery and two counts of theft. On one of the occasions she told a guard who stopped her that she owned Asda.
Two confrontations at Asda
The first incident was on 7 April this year at the Asda store in the St Elli Shopping Centre. A security guard spotted Racuoco putting bottles of wine into a bag. When he confronted her, she held up a needle and warned him: “Come anywhere near me and you’ll have this”.
She went back to the same store 11 days after a separate theft in May, despite being banned. She was picking up joints of meat when a guard recognised her and told her to go. Prosecutor Lewis Ball said she responded: “I own Asda, my family own Asda”. She then took out a needle, pulled off the cap and threatened to stab the guard with it before running off.
Wine from Home Bargains
In between the two Asda visits, on the morning of 5 May, CCTV captured Racuoco walking into the Home Bargains shop on Station Road in Llanelli. She went straight to the alcohol section, slipped a bottle of wine into her pocket and walked out.
Arrests
After the April incident, Racuoco left Asda with the wine and police were called. She was found later that day with both the wine and a syringe. She was questioned and released on bail.
After the second Asda confrontation, officers tracked her down and arrested her the next day. A search found she was carrying a syringe and £95 worth of meat belonging to Tesco.
The court was told Racuoco has 41 previous convictions covering 66 offences, 27 of them thefts and kindred matters.
The defence
Hannah George, representing Racuoco, told the court her client had an “extremely troubled history”. She said “significant childhood trauma” from a young age had led to her misusing illicit substances.
Racuoco has been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and mental and behavioural disorders, Ms George said. These include “significant delusional beliefs”, such as thinking she owned Greggs the bakers. Her mental health problems were made worse by alcohol and drug misuse.
At the time of the offences, Ms George said, Racuoco had no stable home, had stopped taking her prescribed medication and had gone back to drinking and drugs. The reality, she said, was that her client “was not well”.
Sentencing
Judge Christopher Vosper KC said it was clear Racuoco had been shoplifting and had used the threat of force on two occasions while doing so.
After a 20% reduction for her guilty pleas, she was jailed for four years. The judge said his understanding was that she would serve one-third of the sentence in custody before being released on licence to serve the rest in the community.
