Category Archives: News

The Lancashire Telegraph reports that a man’s ‘intense personal crisis’ led him to embark on a 10-day shoplifting spree, which netted him goods worth £500.

Dean Roberth Smethhurst got into financial difficulties, fell in with the wrong crowd and started to use heroin after being unable to obtain a pedlar’s licence.

The Ipswich Star reports that thieves stealing from shops in Ipswich are causing a ‘constant’ problem for town centre police and security teams.

Town centre rangers, who return up to £5,000 of stolen goods to stores each month, admit that this “probably doesn’t even touch the surface” of the amount of thieving that occurs.

The Press and Journal reports that a group of Tesco workers hatched a fraudulent plan to steal products from their employer via inflated online orders.

Ashleigh Ritchie, Kirsteen Scott and Emma Heddle took advantage of Tesco’s policy at the time, which meant workers were allowed to do their own internet shopping orders.

The Shropshire Star reports that an accounts assistant employed by a dairy charity has been jailed for stealing over £300,000 in 19 fraudulent transactions.

A court heard that Richard Dicken blamed a gambling addiction and mental health problems for his actions.

The Daily Echo reports that traders in Poole are forming new groups to take on thieves, as the town finds itself in the grip of a shoplifting epidemic.

Business owners say thieves are treating their offending as a “nine-to-five job” and, in the new year, a series of organisations uniting police, independent businesses and major retailers will launch in Dorset in a bid to tackle crime.

Metro reports that a branch of Asda in Leek, Staffordshire, has banned three years of pupils from a local secondary school from the store, after a spate of shoplifting by a small number of its students.

Pupils in years 9, 10 and 11 at Leek High School will be affected by the ban.