Category Archives: Shoplifting

According to Gazette Live, Cleveland Police will no longer punish certain shoplifters.

The force has rolled out a new retail crime scheme – Operation Raptor – which means police officers are not automatically called to shops to deal with suspects caught stealing.

A story in the Manchester Evening News gives details of a ‘shoplifting’ woman who believed she’d been given a genuine job testing security systems at high-street stores.

A Devon woman was caught shoplifting from Boots and Wilkinsons in April and told police she had recently taken on the role of a ‘personal shoplifter’ – via a job ad on Facebook.

The Burton Mail reports that a young mother who hid stolen goods from a supermarket in her baby’s push chair has been criticised by a judge, and jailed.

Judge Jonathan Taaffe told Polish national Sandra Paczkowska that she was part of “an epidemic” of thieves and jailed her for 16 weeks.

The Telegraph carries a story of pensioners stealing £6,000 worth of magazines in year from a branch of high street chain WH Smith in Stirling.

It is reported that female thieves have been spotted on CCTV pinching magazines such as Take a Break, Chat and That’s Life, with men in their 60s and 70s being caught trying to conceal fly-fishing magazines and wrestling publications.

The Courier reports that two pensioners claimed they took shoplifting ‘day trips’ and were forced to steal as they didn’t have enough money to live off.

William Wilson and Davina Cowan stated that they struggled to live off their pensions and Wilson initially believed he could steal from shops if it was OK for celebrities to do so.

As reported in the Express, one of Scotland’s most senior police officers tried to give Tesco staff the slip after he was caught with three beef fillets in his pocket.

A court was told that Assistant Chief Constable John Mauger gave a false name to the security guards who apprehended him in a Teso Extra store in Colchester.