A WOMAN has been handed a suspended prison sentence for "spitting on a shop assistant".

Sarah Louise Cooper, 27 and of Howards Mead, Pennington, was said to have committed the assault while in the act of committing a theft from a shop.

Cooper pleaded guilty to stealing a meat slice and drink worth £2 from One Stop in Pennington and assaulting a woman at the nearby Tesco Express on October 7.

The defendant admitted damaging a window at an address in Howards Mead belonging to New Forest District Council.

She committed these offences while a community order for offences of assault, theft and making off without payment was in force.

At a West Hampshire Magistrates' Court hearing on Thursday, October 28, the bench committed Cooper to prison for 14 weeks, suspended for 12 months.

The bench issued a custodial sentence because "the offence of assault was an assault by spitting on a shop assistant in the act of theft from a shop".

"At any time the offence is a serious matter but in the days when Covid has affected the lives of so many the offence is aggravated," court papers said.

"The sentence is imposed both as a punishment and to send a message of general deterrent effect."

Cooper must have alcohol dependency treatment for nine months and complete up to 25 days of rehabilitation activity.

She was barred from entering Tesco Metro in Lymington for 12 months and ordered to pay a total of £252 compensation to the assault victim, One Stop for the theft and the council for the criminal damage.