A mother and daughter shoplifting team really took the biscuit when they swiped a giant gingerbread man from John Lewis.

Debbie Smith, 51, and Charlene Friend, 25, visited the Bluewater store and gingerly lifted the large biscuit, two pairs of Ugg slippers and a sheepskin throw.

But the half-baked scheme did not end sweetly for the pair when they were caught by store security.

The women, both of Beechwood Drive in Gravesend, were also found with more than £70 worth of stolen toys from The Entertainer, Dartford, magistrates heard.

Friend said she had “not been functioning properly” since the birth of her child on August 5.

Both women pleaded guilty to the theft, carried out on December 21

Magistrates fined them £150 and ordered them to pay a £20 victim surcharge and £85 in court costs.