Category Archives: Shoplifting

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.

Mail Online reports that a consultant eye surgeon stole £370 of cufflinks and ties from the Heathrow airport branch of Hugo Boss after struggling to cope when his wife had a miscarriage and then became terminally ill.

Dr Gurjeet Jutley blamed his actions on being a ‘human in distress’ at a disciplinary tribunal.

A Gloucester woman claimed she is ‘addicted to shoplifting’ because she carried on offending after being given a suspended prison sentence a month previously.

Charlene Ellacott received the suspended sentence on October 17 but on October 20 she stole three bottles of vodka worth £54 from Morrisons.

Mail Online brings a story from Down Under, with complete relevance to us Poms, as it reports that, in Australia, nearly a third of all items are stolen over the Christmas period.

Thieves target stores for new-release goods or to impress friends whilst entertaining, with shoplifting professionals taking advantage of crowded, busy shops and selling stolen goods online.

The Bolton News reports that three mothers – with 12 children between them – have been jailed after stealing more than £2,000-worth of designer clothes.

Razwana Ahmed, Nazia Shazad and Nargis Noreen travelled 80 miles to the McArthur Glen Designer Outlet in York where they tried to escape with the haul.