A match made in crime... the couples who broke the law together

For better, for worse, couples in love are expected to stick together through whatever comes their way.

But what happens when your other half gets involved in crime? For these couples, that meant they joined in for the ride too.

From burgling a friend to dealing drugs to a day out at the riots last summer, these people proved they were not just partners in life, but partners in crime too.

We've taken a look at the most recent high-profile cases of couples in court at Manchester's courts.

Here, the Manchester Evening News has looked back on those couples who took their chance against the law, and ended up in court.

Thieving couple John Firth and Aileen Cullinane set about on a spree of shoplifting and burglaries in an effort to fund their drug addictions.

When their friend offered them a room for the night after discovering they were sleeping rough, they left the next morning, taking her TV, make-up and prescription tablets.

Both were in the throes of a heroin addiction, with Cullinane, 35, spending up to £60 per day on the class A drug.

45-year-old Firth, who racked up a whopping 118 offences on his criminal record, had also stolen items including washing scent boosters and coffee to fund his addiction.

Jailing him for 22 months, the Recorder of Manchester, judge Nicholas Dean KC told him: “If you continue the way you have been over the last few years you will either spend the rest of your life in prison or dead before you are 50.”

Both were arrested and interviewed after police found them sleeping in a tent on Ordsall Lane, Eccles. They have since pleaded guilty to the following: Firth pleaded guilty to five offences of burglary and five offences of theft; and Cullinane admitted four offences of burglary, one