The Lego looters! Moment shameless shoplifters stroll into Asda and fill up bags for life with £300 worth of toys

• The brazen thieves stole £300 worth of Lego and casually walked past security 

This is the moment shameless shoplifters were caught red-handed on CCTV walking out of a supermarket with hundreds of pounds of Lego stuffed into carrier bags.

Shakita Maximilian and Yasmin Leech were spotted stealing £300 worth of Lego from an Asda store in Doncaster, South Yorkshire.

Leech, 34, of Springwell Lane, Balby, and Maximilian, 25, of Chesterfield Road, Sheffield, were captured on CCTV entering the supermarket, heading straight to the toy section and grabbing several boxes of Lego.

Then they went to the self-service checkout, put all the Lego boxes into carrier bags and walked past a security guard and out of the store without paying for any of the items. 

The brazen thieves can be seen stuffing the Lego into carrier bags and walking out of the store without paying

Leech, 34, of Springwell Lane, Balby, walked into the Asda store and stole hundreds of pounds worth of Lego

Maximilian, 25, of Chesterfield Road, Sheffield, was convicted of four thefts in total

Leech and Maximilian were jailed for 10 weeks and 16 weeks respectively. Leech was convicted of one theft and sentenced on November 16, while Maximilian was convicted of four thefts in total after also taking £60 worth of boxsets from HMV, £151 worth of chocolate and chilled goods from One Stop and two t-shirts from JD Sports.

Meanwhile, other well-known shoplifters including Emma Fraser and Shaun Fitzgerald were also sent down.

Fraser, 32, of Goodison Boulevard, Cantley, was jailed for 16 weeks on November 16.

She was convicted of 12 thefts after stealing over £500 worth of items from Co-Op, One Stop and a pharmacy.

Fitzgerald, 55, of Broom Hill Drive, Doncaster, appeared before Doncaster Magistrates’ Court last Saturday, November 18, and was jailed for eight weeks.

Leech and Maximilian can be seen in the toy section of the supermarket grabbing boxes of expensive Lego

The shoplifters walked to the toy section of the supermarket and grabbed boxes of Lego

The shoplifting duo even walked past a security guard with the stolen toys

He stole £70 worth of meat and chocolate from a Tesco store by hiding the items under his coat.

All four of the shoplifters were jailed for a combined total of 50 weeks after being caught stealing over £1,400 worth of products from shops in Doncaster. 

Sergeant Steve Roberts, from Doncaster Central Neighbourhood Policing Team, said: ‘We will not tolerate thieves stealing from stores in Doncaster and I’m pleased to see that these four prolific offenders have been given custodial sentences. We want Doncaster to be a safe and welcoming place for people to live, work, shop and visit, and we are determined to tackle retail crime to make sure that happens.

‘Shop workers and managers should not have to apprehend thieves at work and we want shoplifters to know that we are building intelligence on them and we know how they operate. We are watching you, and if you are caught, there is a very real prospect of you being sent to prison.’

It comes as it is estimated Britain’s shoplifting crime spree could be costing the retail sector £1billion.

Now there is demand for security guards as retail chains crackdown on thieves and abusive thugs.

Phil Bentley, boss of outsourcer Mitie, said he saw revenues jump due to the need for security guards.

He said the problem was placing ‘unprecedented pressures’ on retailers, which were seeking new technology to catch and prosecute offenders.

FTSE-listed Mitie company employs 7,000 people in retail and helped set up Project Pegasus, which will see chains including Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Waitrose and Next share CCTV footage of serial thieves.

The demand for store security helped Mitie raise its revenues by 11 per cent in the past six months.

Fraser, 32, of Goodison Boulevard, Cantley, was jailed for 16 weeks on November 16

Fitzgerald, 55, of Broom Hill Drive, Doncaster, appeared before Doncaster Magistrates’ Court last Saturday, November 18, and was jailed for eight weeks

Last week figures from the Co-op revealed almost 300,000 incidents, often involving abuse, violence and anti-social behaviour, at its stores this year.

And the retail giant complained that officers failed to attend to four in five of these incidents, despite promises from forces and ministers to treat shop thefts more seriously.

The shoplifting epidemic often involves organised criminal gangs stealing high-value electricals, alcohol and cigarettes.

The crime has now extended to everyday items from meat, cheese and laundry liquid to nappies and baby formula amid rising living costs.

Co-op’s latest data shows that of the near-3,000 occasions this year where specialist security teams detained serious offenders, police failed to show up 76 per cent of the time, leading to a dangerous ‘pressure cooker’ environment that puts store workers and communities at risk.

The figures were released at the start of Respect for Shopworkers’ Week, run by the union USDAW, and come against the background of the launch of a new Government Retail Crime Action Plan.

This includes a commitment that police forces will attend incidents where the offender is detained.

Rishi Sunak last month pledged to crack down on the scourge – but in a contradictory move this week, Justice Secretary Alex Chalk revealed he will change the law to limit short prison terms. This is likely to lead to thousands of shoplifters and thieves dodging jail. 

Graham Wynn of the British Retail Consortium said: ‘Retail crime has been getting increasingly worse, with thieves becoming bolder and more aggressive. These incidents are very often the trigger to violent and abusive incidents against workers.

‘It also costs retailers £953million a year – money that would be better spent on reducing prices. We need the police to give retail crime greater prioritisation.’

Source: Read Full Article