Monthly Archives: January 2025

According to the Kent Online website, a grieving widow who stole from her solicitor employers says she acted out of “desperation” after being hounded by bailiffs.

Paula Gray had said a professional witness had been used by the solicitors and was expecting payment.

The BBC News website reports that retail crime is “out of control” and shoplifters are carrying out increasingly brazen and violent acts of theft.

In some cases, offenders are openly clearing complete shelves of items in full view of customers and shop workers – a tactic sometimes known as “kamikaze” shoplifting.

The BBC News website reports that a woman who stole an “eye-watering” amount of cosmetics from Tesco stores across the UK has been jailed for 18 months.

Cristina Curt was part of an organised shoplifting gang which stole £48,000 worth of stock in 2024.

According to the Metro website, a group of small business owners in Haslemere, Surrey, have launched a vigilante WhatsApp group to counter the rise in ‘well-off, middle-aged’ shoplifters.

The traders send pictures on the WhatsApp group warning each other that previously identified thieves are in the area.

As reported on the Mirror website, potty thieves have stolen 13 portable toilets in a late-evening raid, leaving a company £12,000 out of pocket.

Amy Philpot – GM of AndyLoos – said their depot in Banbury was broken into, with three vehicles involved in the raid, the third acting as a lookout.

The Kent Online website reports that two asylum seekers went out on a shoplifting spree at Bluewater to steal expensive designer handbags to sell on.

Frans Epentrius and Tobias Iileka – both waiting for their claims for asylum to be processed – went into a John Lewis store armed with a pair of wire cutters.