TWO months after her release from prison for shoplifting, Jennifer Yeow Cheng Chiam could not control her urge to steal again.

The 48-year-old picked up $38 worth of food items such as waffles, sushi and bananas, from Cold Storage at Parco Bugis Junction on May 10.

She was arrested and charged in court earlier this year.

Since 1986, she has had nine previous convictions. Except for one, all were for stealing food items.

She was released in March this year after having served five years for corrective training, a regime for repeat offenders.

The thin bespectacled woman pleaded guilty to the theft of the items from Cold Storage at a Community Court on Friday.

Pleading for leniency, her lawyer, Mr Prasad Karunakarn, said his client, the eldest in a family of four, was remorseful and deeply regretted her uncontrollable and involuntary urge to steal.

A psychiatric report by Associate Professor Munidasa Winslow stated that Yeow was suffering from depression and bulimia which had been untreated in the past. She also has an impulse control disorder.

The items shoplifted were related to her eating disorder, said Prof Winslow.

The lawyer asked for a probation report or a short jail sentence.

But Community Court judge Soh Tze Bian decided to give her a chance by postponing sentence for a year so that she could be treated.

She will be sentenced on Dec 21 next year.

The maximum penalty for theft is a jail term of up to seven years and a fine.