A WOMAN stole £500 from a pensioner while she was distracted at a post office counter.

The victim, in her eighties, left her pension money at the post office in New Street, Braintree, after she became distracted while posting a letter.

Julie McCarthy, 52, of the Twin Oaks caravan site in Stisted, was behind her in the queue and took it.

She admitted theft by finding when she appeared at Colchester Magistrates’ Court yesterday.

Read the full story in today's Gazette.