Children from an Oxford hospice benefited after thieves were collared during a shoplifting spree.

Helen and Douglas House Hospice, in East Oxford, has been given two Nintendo DS computer games and a Scrabble board game by police in Witney.

The items, worth more than £200, were all stolen from Woolworths by thieves in October last year.

But with the company now in administration and all its stores closed, officers were left with a dilemma as to what they should do with them.

Pc Nigel Lomas said: “Normally, when we have finished using the stolen items as evidence we return them to the stores they were taken from.

“We obviously couldn’t do that with Woolworths so we contacted Deloitte, the company responsible for the administration, and they said we could keep them.

“Rather than doing that, we thought it would be nice if we donated them to charity, and everyone agreed on Helen and Douglas House.”

Community fundraiser for the Magdalen Street-based charity Mary Boullin said children at the hospice would be delighted. She said: “These gifts are brilliant and I know that everyone at Helen and Douglas House will appreciate them.

“It’s not just about the children coming in that have life threatening illnesses. We also have brothers, sisters, mums and dads and these will be available to them as well.”

Pc Lomas said: “It’s a very worthy cause, a local charity and they do some great work. I also know officers that have had some personal experience with them, which was another reason for choosing them.

“It’s great that someone gets to benefit from criminal activity like this.”

The two hand-held Nintendo DS games consoles, worth £100 each, and the board game, worth £30, were stolen by Darren Dawson, 26, and Samantha Mooney, 31, both of Heather Place, Marston, Oxford, on October 31.

Woolworths was just one of the shops they targeted, along with Lloyds Pharmacy, New Look and Vision Express.

When the pair were caught, they had more than £500 worth of stolen items on them. Last month, Witney magistrates jailed them both for four months.

ckearney@oxfordmail.co.uk