Five prolific offenders jailed

Posted Thursday, November 12, 2009

Article from the Leicester Mercury Monday, November 09, 2009

Five of Leicester's most notorious shoplifters have been jailed – and police have warned that more could follow them to prison in the next few weeks.
The four men and one woman appeared before city magistrates last week and were each jailed for up to six months.
Citywatch, a Neighbourhood Watch-style group which distributes thieves' mugshots to its 200-plus members, said it was likely others would be arrested and put before the courts in the next few weeks.
Graham Collins, intelligence officer at Citywatch, said: "They are definitely five of the most prolific thieves in Leicester, so it's good that the shops will have a rest from them for the next couple of months.
"Now that we have these people out of our hair for the time being, the police and store detectives can concentrate on the ones who are still out there.
"Hopefully, there will be some more good news in the next couple of weeks and some of our other prolific offenders will go the same way.
"It's good to see the courts and the Crown Prosecution Service are doing their bit to protect the shops from people like this."
Dick Pollard, community co-ordinator for city centre police, said: "They will all be away for the Christmas period and that will be good news for the businesses.
"These people in particular were stealing on a daily basis and were so prolific because they were doing it because they all have drug habits to support."
A city centre charity shop manager welcomed the sentences handed to the thieves.
She said: "Shoplifting is awful at the moment and we're losing a lot of stock to people like these.
"We're used to them stealing garments, but we're even beginning to see people stealing coat hangers.
"Why would they do that?
"It makes it worse because these people know they're stealing from a charity.
"They have no consciences."

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