Natasha Dempsey, 39, faced Shepparton Magistrates’ Court last Monday after she attended Nutrition Industries in Shepparton on August 14 and placed a can of pre-workout into her bag, worth $69.
After being confronted by staff Dempsey "became verbally aggressive" and left without making any attempts to pay.
“Theft is rife throughout her whole criminal history, that’s concerning and of issue to the community,” Police prosecutor Senior Constable Liam Murdock said.
The court was told she was later found walking along Benalla Rd, where police located the can in her bag and arrested her for theft and committing an indictable offence while on bail.
“The accused was searched in the police station by a custody officer - while searching the accused, (Dempsey) began urinating into her own clothing and then threw the urine-soaked socks into the face of the officer,” Sen Constable Murdock said.
“While it may have not resulted in an injury of a police officer it's the execution of their duty, it was an extreme act of degradation.
“The accused has history . . . in relation to violent offending against police and the prosecution seek the court to address that in the way of specific and general deterrence.”
The accused's lawyer Lauren Bull entered pleas of guilty to the charges on behalf of her client, telling the court she was currently on a community corrections order along with a deferral for which she was on bail.
Ms Bull said her client had "long term quite significant mental health issues" stemming from a "couple of decades" of diagnosis.
She referred to the offending as "very low level" shop thefts.
Police applied to revoke Dempsey's bail, telling the court despite being banned from "most stores in the Shepparton CBD" she was not deterred from committing offences.
The court was told Dempsey was on three counts of bail at the time of the current offending.
Ms Bull said her client had suffered childhood trauma which effected some of her reactions.
She urged Magistrate Peter Mithen not to remand Dempsey, saying this was "probably not" going to further her compliance with bail conditions.
“We can't just jail our way through the mental health funding crisis, we can't jail our way through Dempsey needing help . . . she needs assistance and support, we cannot lock her up every time this occurs,” Ms Bull said.
Mr Mithen did not revoke Dempsey's bail and imposed a sentence of time served for the new charges.
“Dempsey does need help - for her to get some assistance is a high priority,” he said.
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