A WOMAN who carried out a doorstep robbery in which she tore hundreds of pounds worth of necklaces from around her victim’s neck, is beginning a two-year jail term.

Rachel Miles, aged 29, carried out the robbery on February 25 this year after knocking on her victim’s door in Jones Street, in Baneswell, Newport.

Moments earlier, she had tried unsuccessfully to sell the woman some candles, before returning to the house, asking if the woman’s son was in, then tearing off the jewellery as her victim tried to close the front door.

The force of the attack pulled the woman - who Newport Crown Court was told wore a lot of necklaces at the time - over and onto the ground.

Miles and teenager Nyla Powell, who was with her at the time, then ran off. Miles later received more than £700 for the items she had taken, from the Money Shop, in the city’s Commercial Street.

Miles’ victim hurt her hip and her arm, and suffered a grazed neck. In a statement read in court, she said she has been afraid to leave her house since the robbery, and has had an alarm fitted that goes off if someone tries her door handle.

Though she had recovered a couple of pendants after the incident, a lot of the stolen items remained missing. She said some are of great sentimental value and are irreplaceable.

The court was told that Miles, of Coulson Close, Pill, Newport, had been in the grip of a crack cocaine habit, and said she had been threatened with violence if she did not pay off a loan.

It had not been her intention to commit a robbery, the act being spontaneous and one for which she is contrite.

Miles pleaded guilty to charges of robbery and fraud.

Powell, of Bolt Close, Newport - now 18, but 17 at the time of the incident - pleaded guilty to committing fraud. The prosecution accepted a not guilty plea on a robbery charge.

Defence counsel Claire Pickthall told the court that Powell, who was “regularly taking heroin and crack cocaine at the time”, is “genuinely remorseful.”

Sentencing Miles to two years in prison for robbery and 12 months for fraud - the latter sentence to run concurrently - Judge Patrick Curran QC told her: “Robbery is always a serious offence. You have plainly caused her (the victim) psychological injury.”

He sentenced Powell to six months in prison, suspended for two years, for fraud, and told her: “You went along with Rachel Miles and were involved in the dispersal of the items.”

Judge Curran also ordered Powell to complete 150 hours of unpaid work.