Two Essex women charged with stealing hundreds of pounds of printer ink

TWO Essex women have been separately charged with stealing hundreds of pounds worth of ink cartridges from Sainsbury's supermarkets.

Kathleen Stokes, 42, has been charged with stealing £225 worth of ink cartridges from the Sainsbury's supermarket at Cricketers Retail Park in Basildon, Essex.

Stokes, from the Oak Lane traveller site, next to the former Dale Farm encampment at Crays Hill, near Basildon, Essex, is alleged to have stolen the cartridges from the on December 7 last year.

The Irish national appeared at Basildon Magistrates' Court, when the case was adjourned, and she was released on unconditional bail.

In an unrelated case, Eileen Reilly, 19, from Cotswold Road, Westcliff,

has been charged with stealing seven ink cartridges, worth £287, from Sainsbury's in Grays, Essex, on February 19 this year.

The case was adjourned.

Theft of printer ink from supermarkets has been on the rise in recent years due to the small size, but high value of the product.

Last December Essex Police released images of two men (pictured above) wanted in connection with the theft of thousands of pounds of ink cartridges from the Asda in the Water Gardens, Harlow.

It was reported that two men took a five-figure sum of ink cartridges from the store at around 3.40pm on Saturday, November 9.

An Essex Police spokesman said: "It appears that following all available lines of enquiry we weren’t able to identify the men involved so it was filed pending new information.