Food and drink top list for shop thieves

Throughout the month of April, officers in Rotherham received reports of 161 shoplifting offences across the borough – equating to a total amount of £16,500 stolen from retailers.

A spokesman for South Yorkshire Police said: “The top three products are food, alcohol and cosmetics, followed closely by clothing and electrical items.

“There were 56 incidents of stolen food, 35 thefts of alcohol and 19 thefts of cosmetics.

“Officers have successfully dealt with 78 of the 161 shoplifting offences and charged 42 people with 49 of the offences.”

The offenders included 25-year-old Andrei Stan, from Eastwood in Rotherham, who admitted the theft of £3,710 worth of food and alcohol from Morrisons in Bramley.

He was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment.

Meanwhile, Ashley Moore, 26, from Wingfield in Rotherham, pleaded guilty to stealing alcohol from the Co-op in Maltby.

He was handed a 20-week suspended prison sentence and a 120-hour unpaid work order.

Chief Inspector Richard Butterworth said: ”The monthly results show that we will not tolerate shoplifting in Rotherham.

“There have been a large number of offences across the borough throughout April and the good work of officers has enabled us to process many of these individuals and deal with them appropriately.

“We would like to send out a clear warning that if you were involved in one of the 83 shoplifting offences not processed to date or are thinking of going shoplifting throughout May, there is a very good chance that your name could appear in our future results for all to see.

“Shoplifting is not a victimless crime and many people use shoplifting to fund their lifestyles.

“We would encourage people to think twice before buying items that they believe to be stolen.

“By receiving stolen goods you could be in as much trouble as those involved in shoplifting and the buying of these stolen items is encouraging shoplifters to continue with their life of crime.”