A TABLET worth more than £2,000 was stolen from a foundation helping marginalised young people before the organisation used technology experts to track it to a woman who had bought it for just £90.

Raise Education and Wellbeing Centre, part of the Raise the Youth foundation, was burgled overnight between August 5 and 6 last year.

The non-profit organisation works with marginalised youngsters who have experienced social, emotional or mental health difficulties.

An electronic tablet, used by pupils, staff and visitors to sign-in and out of the site was taken and had to be replaced to the cost of £2,271.

Technology was then used to access the camera in the tablet and take pictures of somebody using it to access Facebook and tracking software was also installed.

The nearest address to where the tracking traced the device was, Millers Nook Riding School, Lostock Ln, Westhoughton, where Nicola Cryer’s mother lived.

It was being used by Cryer’s son, and police were told she had given it to him as a belated birthday present.

Cryer, aged 39 and now of Lostock Lane in Westhoughton, was interviewed by police in November on a voluntary basis.

She said had bought the tablet for £90 from a man she knew as Jimmy at Lever Street Sunday market, who told her it was not stolen but in hindsight said she realised it must have been.

Cryer was sentenced yesterday at Bolton Magistrates’ Court for handling stolen goods and failing to surrender to a warrant.

She had originally been due to appear at court last month but failed to do so and a warrant was issued for her arrest. Cryer also appeared in the Most Wanted section of The Bolton News as police tried to trace her.

She surrendered at the court yesterday where she was sentenced.

Nahil Khan, representing Cryer, said she was embarrassed by what she had done and was remorseful.

Cryer was fined £120 for handling stolen goods, £50 for failing to appear on a warrant and ordered to pay a £30 victim surcharge, £200 in compensation and £100 in costs.