Elizabete Zvirgzdina and Lucy Houghton had the smiles wiped off their faces after posing with looted Crocs and bath bombs from Lush in the riots in Hull city centre last summer
This smiling duo couldn’t hide their grins as they helped themselves to Crocs and bath goodies from Lush during a riot on a British high street last summer.
But they weren’t smiling in the dock on Friday, as a judge sentenced them for their part in the shameful behaviour blasted as a “stain on the city”. Elizabete Zvirgzdina brazenly helped herself to a basket and filled it with “as much as she could carry” in the Lush store in Hull city centre, which was raided by thugs following riots over last summer’s Southport attacks.
Along with Lucy Houghton, the pair also helped themselves to pairs of Crocs burgled from a nearby Shoezone and discarded on the street. The pair were snapped grinning as they showed off their loot in an image which later went viral on Twitter.
But no longer basking in their glory, the two now both face criminal records as they were slammed by a judge and narrowly avoided jail, telling the court they thought it was okay as they “saw everybody else doing it”. Zvirgzdina, 19, admitted burglary at the Lush store in Jameson Street, Hull, which she entered as a trespasser stealing “multiple products” of an unknown value, on August 3, Hull Live reports. She also admitted burglary with intent to steal at the O2 store, also in Jameson Street, after CCTV captured her wandering in before leaving empty-handed.
Houghton, also 19, also admitted handling the stolen goods at Hull crown court on Friday. The court heard that shoes, which had been taken from the raided store, in Jameson Street, were put on the pavement outside the shop and both Zvirgzdina and Houghton picked them up and stole them.
CCTV showed Zvirgzdina also entering an O2 store at 6.37pm after the windows had been previously smashed, showing her wandering around but not taking anything. Hull crown court heard how Zvirgzdina told police that she had drunk five to seven vodka and Cokes and went to the protest at a nearby hotel, which she said was about “kicking all the foreigners out”.
Claire Holmes, mitigating, said: “Both defendants behaved in an appalling way on this particular day but, since then, they have done all that they could to try to put forward their best mitigation. They both handed themselves in to the police station.
“They were both in drink, which is no excuse. Neither defendant seeks to excuse their behaviour in any way. They are both apologetic.” Judge Bury said that one of them later claimed that she was not in drink.
He asked Zvirgzdina: “What were you thinking of then?” She replied: “I didn’t think anything. I just saw everyone else doing it so I thought it was acceptable.” When Judge Bury told her that it was not acceptable, she hastily added: “I know it’s not acceptable but I see everyone else doing it.”
Judge Bury told her: “You are better than this. You have got to do something with your life. You did something really stupid, although you didn’t yourself break in to any store.”
Judge Bury told both women: “August 3 of last year represents a stain on this city. There was large-scale public disorder of a totally unpleasant, racist and violent type. Police officers were injured. Racial minorities were being verbally abused.
“You were not involved in that, either of you, but later in the day, when the shops had been looted and broken into by people with bats or sometimes just their boots, property was being stolen by people who thought it was the right thing to do to help themselves.” Zvirgzdina also admitted a separate offence of possessing cannabis on August 5.
Judge Bury added: “Both of you are totally ashamed of the things that you did. Both of you are far better people than this. I believe you two are the only two defendants that I have not locked up in these proceedings, so if you want to know how lucky you are, that’s how lucky you are.”
Zvirgzdina was given an eight-month suspended prison sentence and 12 days’ rehabilitation. Houghton was given 40 hours’ unpaid work and 15 days’ rehabilitation.
