TWO shoplifters have been electronically tagged and given curfews after they admitted stealing perfume from a Chester department store.

Leon Langford, 42, and Peter Powell, 51, of Garden City, Deeside, targeted Debenhams in the city centre in the run-up to Christmas.

Both were handed community orders to include a six-week curfew between 6pm and 6am and will have to wear ankle tags.

Langford must also pay the store £453 in compensation as the perfume he pinched was never recovered.

Both men pleaded guilty to theft during separate hearings at Chester Magistrates Court on Friday, December 28.

Powell, of Sealand Avenue, admitted filling a JD Sports bag with perfume worth around £350 at around 4pm on Saturday, December 8.

He wandered out of the store, setting off the alarms, and was apprehended. He initially denied any wrongdoing in interview but later accepted his guilt.

Defending, Victoria Handley said her client had taken Valium to ease the pain of an injury and therefore had “little recollection” of what happened.

Langford, of Kingsley Road, had entered the same store the day before, on Friday, December 7, and was not stopped when he walked out with perfume worth £453.

Eager to replicate his success, he returned to the same store the next day with Powell and was caught trying to steal £41 of perfume.

In his defence, Miss Handley said he had drug issues and had previously been sectioned and diagnosed with psychosis.

Classed as a vulnerable adult, he received assistance in the community and had lived with his mother for the past 13 years.

Miss Handley said he had recently bought a car and had been under pressure to pay off the debt he owed for it.

“He made a very foolish decision [to shoplift],” she told the court.