Paul Downing twice abused the store worker, Nicola Adams, 34, in Hartlepool's Middleton Grange Shopping Centre after she caught him shoplifting.
The 35-year-old called her a racially abusive word and said "you must have married a white man to get in the country". Richard Wilson, prosecuting at the town's magistrates' court, said: "The woman is white but with dark hair, a dark complexion and a good tan. He called her a '****' and all the names under the sun."
A spokesman for the Commission of Racial Equality said: "It is good to see that the English legal system deals effectively with racial abuse. It is important that anyone who receives any kind of racial abuse has the full arm of the law behind them no matter what colour they are."
Downing pleaded guilty to racially aggravated harassment with fear of violence, theft from a shop and public disorder causing harassment, alarm or distress on March 16 and received a four month prison sentence suspended for 18 months and an 18 month supervision order.
You can read Nicola's reaction here.
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