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A prolific shop thief who was responsible for stealing more than £500 of goods between April and June has been banned from entering any retail premises in Gainsborough.

Nyree Bonner, 48, of Ashcroft Road, Gainsborough has been given a Criminal Behaviour Order (CBO) and a Community Order after being convicted of six counts of theft of goods including cleaning products, clothing, plants and toys.

The thefts took place at shops in the town including Heron Foods, Tesco, Marks & Spencer, Wilkinsons and Morrisons.

The most recent offending took place in June, but Lincoln Magistrates’ Court heard how her offending dated back to January 2021 when considering the CBO and Community Order. The hearing also took into account a failure to surrender to court in May 2021. She had also pleaded guilty to attempted theft and two incidents of assaults.

Her Community Order requires her to have treatment for drug dependency either by or under the direction of the charity We Are With You for six months. Her three-year CBO, which started on 10 August, has conditions not to enter any retail premises in Gainsborough except Caddy’s Cabin in Trinity Street and the Co-op Pharmacy in Market Street.

The CBO is an order designed to tackle the most serious and persistent anti-social individuals where their behaviour has brought them before a criminal court. If it’s breached, this is a criminal offence and custodial sentence can be enforced to deal with the individual.

This is the result of proactive work between the Gainsborough Neighbourhood Policing Team (NPT) and Shop Watch initiative run by West Lindsey District Council.

Inspector Gary Brockie from the West Lindsey NPT, said: “Nyree bonner has caused persistent issues within the Gainsborough community for a long time. She targeted retail premised with no regard for the impact her actions would have on staff, the business or the local community, and also carried out several assaults.

“We want to protect our communities for all types of offending, and orders like this enable us to send a clear message that her behaviour won’t be tolerated. It also provides reassurance to our community that if she does breach the conditions, she will face a criminal conviction which could lead to prison time. She now has an opportunity to take the help and support being offered and rehabilitate herself.”

We keep a continued watch of people who have been issued with CBOs, and we proactively release their image so that members of the community have the opportunity to recognise offending, and are more able to report an incident if one occurs.

If you have an incident you feel needs police attention, please contact us on 101.

Council tenants have been left frustrated after a blunder saw a new gate installed which was too small to get a lawnmower through.

The grass in the communal area of Cannon Street flats in Lincoln hasn’t been cut since at least May.

It has turned into a jungle up to three feet tall.

The gate has now been replaced with a bigger one – although the garden is still wild and unusable as it awaits its first cut in months.

An overgrown bush in the communal area is also blocking all light to one resident’s bedroom, and she says it poses a fire risk.

Liberal Democrat Abbey ward Councillor Clare Smalley says the problems at the flats are “not acceptable”, and she’s been trying to get the council to fix them for several months.

Residents discovered around May that the new gate to the communal area was too narrow for the contractor’s lawnmower to get through.

The grass quickly got out of control, with litter and empty drinks cans accumulating in it.

The council say that both the overgrown bush and the grass will be tended to as soon as possible.

The woman whose ground-floor window is obscured by the bush said: “I’ve been asking for something to be done for three years, but nothing’s happened. It was being maintained by other neighbours, but now it’s been neglected.

“We need the bush gone. It’s a safety risk – if there’s a fire, I’m clearly not getting out of that window.”

She was also disappointed that the grass had been allowed to get so long.

“We could be sitting outside with our neighbours on table and chairs. Instead, it’s overgrown and covered in litter,” she said.

“I was glad to see the gate being changed about a week and a half ago so they can finally get in and cut it – it doesn’t seem to have happened yet though.”

Resident David Matzk, 69, said: “There used to be volunteers to cut the grass, but they moved away and I’m not a spring chicken so I can’t do it myself.

“With it being so dry, isn’t it a health and safety risk to have all that dry grass right next to housing?”

He added that the overgrown bush’s branches made it difficult to walk down the path while carrying shopping or bin bags.

Councillor Smalley said: “It isn’t fair that residents haven’t been able to use their communal area for the whole summer. I was first contacted about this in May, and have asked repeatedly for something to be done about it.

“If it hadn’t been so dry, the grass could well have grown even higher and caused more problems.

“The overgrown bush is a long-running issue which I have been trying to get fixed. It isn’t acceptable that residents have to put up with these problems.”

The council have promised to resolve the issues soon.

A spokesperson for City of Lincoln Council said: “A works order was raised with our contractor to remove the bush located at 44 Cannon Street some time ago. We have raised this again as a priority and are committed to ensuring this is completed as quickly as possible.

“With regards to our communal area, our contractor was previously unable to access the grass due to the size of the gate.

“This issue has now been resolved and we have instructed our contractors to cut the grass as soon as possible.”