Category Archives: Shoplifting

The Manchester Evening News reports that a ‘wild’ shoplifter stole from shops 63 times during a stealing spree that netted him over £23,000 in seven months.

Paul Gillespie raided dozens of shops including TK Maxx, Boots, Sports Direct, Marks and Spencer and Peacocks picking up what he could find.

The Hartlepool Mail reports that addicts stealing to buy drugs is the main cause of shoplifting in Hartlepool, rather than stealing due to hunger, according to community safety experts.

A study analysed crime figures and interviews with offenders and discovered that ‘shoplifting remains the offence of choice for the most prolific criminals.’

The Independent reports that a police officer has been sacked for shoplifting £200 worth of items whilst on duty at Birmingham’s Bull Ring shopping centre.

A misconduct hearing heard that Abigail Smith stole £70-worth of moisturiser from Selfridges and said that she believed it “was a cry for help” after being “let down by West Midlands Police.”

Mail Online reports that a crowd surrounded a suspected shoplifter in a branch of Sports Direct in Greater Manchester and shouted, “Don’t let her get away with it.”

Video footage of the incident went viral and showed a quick-thinking schoolboy putting the brake on her pram, which allegedly contained the goods, so she is unable to flee with them.

Mail Online reports that a shoplifter stole a coat from Primark on her way to court and, with bare-faced cheek, asked security staff to put the tags in the bin.

Darlene Mullen lifted the jacket as she made her way to Perth Sheriff Court to be sentenced on other shoplifting charges.

BBC News carried a story that investigated the world of the shoplifter and found that many of them are not deterred by the sentences that could be received.

A woman named Kelsey was interviewed for the Victoria Derbyshire programme and told producers that “Nine times out of 10, you get away with it, and you’re not bothered about the consequences.”