A woman is facing a possible jail sentence after using children as cover to help her steal Jellycat cuddly toys worth more than £4,000 in a series of shoplifting raids.

Ruby Smith, 35, from Suffolk, is believed to have pocketed her haul of the best-selling toys to cash in on the huge demand for them and sell them cut price to collectors.

Her arrest is the latest incident in a Jellycat crime wave across the UK which has seen shoplifters target the soft fabric collectibles which cost from £14 up to £200 for giant dolls.

Smith of Victoria Hill, Eye, Suffolk, pleaded guilty seven charges of theft when she appeared today before Norwich magistrates.

Prosecutor Rima Begum said: ‘These offences were committed at different garden centres in Norfolk.

‘Miss Smith entered with children and stole items which she concealed in prams or handed to children, and left without paying.’

Ms Begum said there would be an application for compensation from the garden centres which she stole from.

She added that Smith had previous convictions for theft with the most recent being in July last year. She also had a conditional discharge for theft in 2021.

The court heard how she stole most of her haul in three raids on the Bressingham Garden Centre near Diss, Norfolk.

She stole toy Jellycat animals worth £1,600 from the store on July 20, followed by another haul worth £1,679 just weeks later and a third which netted her toys worth £512.

The Wroxham Barns gift shop at Hoveton, Norfolk, was also targeted twice, losing Jellycat toys worth £194 on August 6 and £136 on August 31.

Smith also stole Jellycat toys twice from the Thetford Garden Centre, stealing an unknown quantity of toys on September 9 and others worth £58 on September 23.

Andy Spence, defending, said: ‘There is clearly no justification for any thefts. There are a number of thefts with a high aggregate value.’

He said the thefts had been committed when Smith was facing financial problems and difficulties with her and her partner being forced to leave their previous rented accommodation because the landlady wanted to sell the property

Mr Spence added: ‘The pressures led Miss Smith into a position where she felt desperate and acted in desperation to alleviate those pressures.

‘She accepts fully that what she did was wrong. It was a bad decision, and she compounded her problems by doing what she did.

‘They got themselves into a financial mess and Miss Smith tried to get them out of that difficulty in clearly a wholly wrong way.

‘There was nothing particularly sophisticated about the offending, but she accepts there was an element of planning.

Describing Smith as ‘a prolific offender when young’, Mr Spence said: ‘She put herself in a position where custody is clearly a risk.’

He added: ‘Miss Smith indicates that she is genuinely remorseful and went about things the wrong way, putting her liberty and her family’s welfare at risk as a result.’

Presiding magistrate Samantha Tisshaw adjourned sentencing until February 17 to allow an ‘all options’ pre-sentencing report to take place.

Smith was bailed on condition that she stays out of Norfolk apart from going to Morrisons in Diss, or visits to doctor’s, dentist, her lawyer, the court and probation service.

Garden centres and shops up and down the country have repeatedly had stocks of Jellycat dolls stolen in recent months.

Charlie Groves, 46, who owns Groveves Nurseries in Bridport, Dorset, told earlier this month how he had lost £400 of the toys on October 1.

He saw a woman stuffing the dolls into a pram carrying a child when he checked his CCTV, and got the registration number of the car she was using.

Mr Groves believed he spotted one of the stolen items being sold on the Vinted website for second hand goods. When he checked the identity of the seller on social media, he found it appeared he was married to the woman who targeted his shop.

But despite handing all the information including the CCTV to police, he stated that officers had failed to make any arrest, leaving him ‘frustrated’. Dorset Police confirmed that ‘further enquires are ongoing’.

North Yorkshire Police issued a photograph of a man they wanted to speak to after numerous Jellycat toys were stolen from Barkers department store in Northallerton on July 26.

Officers later announced that they had traced a man after the publication of the CCTV image.

In a separate case, Robert Thornton, 42, was jailed for 21 months at Teeside Crown Court in August last year for a series of thefts including a raid on an independent art shop in Darlington when he smashed a window with a sledgehammer and escaped with nine Jellycat teddies.