Today another astonishing video emerged of a serial shoplifter walking\u00a0out of a Next store with hundreds of pounds worth of clothes before stealing \u00a3600 of alcohol from a Co-op and then pinching slabs of meat from Waitrose.<\/span><\/p>\n Meanwhile, the owner of a village shop in Cambridgeshire witnessed a gang of six people – three men and three women – who began stuffing products in the women’s skirts before making off with \u00a3300 worth of frozen food.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Criminal gangs are fuelling the shoplifting ‘epidemic’, which retail bosses say is costing stores \u00a31billion every year. Concerns over lost revenues are likely to be heightened during the crucial Christmas trading period.\u00a0<\/span> Customers are being targeted outside stores, with a video showing a two well-dressed women pickpocket from a shopper’s bag last night in the middle of a crowded Piccadilly Circus\u00a0<\/p>\n The brazen duo snake behind their victim through the packed the crowds during the 14-second clip amid a backdrop of festive decorations with Christmas Day just two weeks away<\/p>\n Shoplifter Lorraine Williams, 51, walked around the Next branch eyeing up stock before cramming her trolley with six coats and a pair of jeans before casually strolling out of the shop\u00a0<\/p>\n The shameless thief also stole items from supermarkets including Co-op, Waitrose and Sainsbury’s<\/p>\n Williams\u00a0admitted four counts of theft, going equipped for theft and breaching a Criminal Behaviour Order imposed last year for similar crimes<\/p>\n The footage from Piccadilly Circus shows the brazen thieves closely strolling behind a woman and unzipping her tanned bag as she walks arm-in-arm with a man past the Criterion Theatre.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n A woman dressed in a black quilted ankle-length coat is seen rummaging through her belongings as her accomplice wearing light denim jeans, black coat and trainers walks beside her.\u00a0<\/p>\n The duo snake behind the couple following their every move in the 14-second video. It is not shown what, if anything, she steals from the woman’s bag.\u00a0<\/p>\n Despite the area in front of Lillywhites sports shop being busy the pair of thieves get uncomfortably close to the couple.<\/p>\n The shameful scene happened last night as the capital was packed with shoppers with just a fortnight to go until Christmas Day.<\/p>\n Some though have questioned why the person filming the crime did not step in.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Craig Hampton said: ‘Swift right hook would do the trick. Also why film and not intervene? Just shout ‘Oi’ and let them know they’ve been filmed.’<\/p>\n Ted French said: ‘Should’ve said something instead of just filming it.’<\/p>\n Shops themselves are being targeted by increasingly shameless thieves apparently unconcerned of the consequences of being caught.\u00a0<\/p>\n Lorraine Williams, 51,\u00a0walked around the Next branch eyeing up stock then cramming her trolley with six coats and a pair of jeans before casually strolling out of the shop.<\/p>\n She made off with \u00a3535 worth of goods from the store in Serpentine Green Shopping Centre, Hampton, Cambridgeshire, at about 6.45pm on October 30 without any attempt to pay.<\/p>\n And two days later on November 1 she entered a branch of Waitrose carrying a bag with the slogan ‘I only came for one thing’ before pinching cuts of meat worth \u00a3121.<\/p>\n She is seen in video grabbing joint after joint from the meat fridge in Waitrose, West Town, before a staff member apparently becomes suspicious and stands watching nearby.<\/p>\n However that didn’t put her off and a week later she was back – stealing 20 bottles of alcohol worth about \u00a3600 from the Co-Op in Bentley Avenue, Yaxley.<\/p>\n Jonathan James, who runs a\u00a0Fresh & Proper shop in the village of Fordham in Cambridgeshire with his son Joshua, recently saw thieves make off with \u00a3300 worth of frozen food.\u00a0<\/p>\n ‘It’s utterly soul destroying just how brazen they are,’ he told the Telegraph.\u00a0‘I’ve got a video of six people coming in \u2013 three ladies and three gentlemen \u2013 and they are just loading stuff into the females’ skirts.’<\/p>\n He described it as a ‘targeted attack’, adding: ‘These people travel, they find somewhere sleepy, and they just target it.’\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n A company in Scotland said it had identified a gang of 154 shoplifters that had been trafficking women and children into the UK from eastern Europe.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Alexandra Radu, 24, pleaded guilty to seven thefts worth \u00a36,000. Her sentencing was deferred for six months while a judge told her she would walk free if she committed no offences in the meantime<\/p>\n Marian Oprescu, 27, pleaded guilty to 27 shop thefts worth around \u00a325,000 and was jailed for two years and three months<\/p>\n The pair (captured on CCTV)\u00a0strolled along multiple Tesco aisles before walking out of the stores without paying for items<\/p>\n Maxine Fraser, managing director at\u00a0Retailers Against Crime (RAC), said\u00a0the group is based in <\/span>Glasgow but sends members across the UK. They have been arrested in<\/span>\u00a0London, Manchester, Birmingham and Darlington.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n ‘There are probably in the region of 15 children working in this group at the moment,’ Ms Fraser told\u00a0BBC\u00a0File on 4.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n She gave the example\u00a0 of\u00a0<\/span>four girls who arrived in 2019 and are still working with the group.<\/p>\n Ms Fraser\u00a0said members of the gang had been jailed but would simply reoffend after being released.\u00a0<\/p>\n Another organised crime group operates in\u00a0London with 100 women who had been trafficked\u00a0from Eastern Europe.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n Former police officer Adam Ratcliff has worked through hours of CCTV and police information to establish the links between this organised crime group for his company Safer Business Network.<\/p>\n He said: ‘This group is targeting cosmetic stores going after fragrance, high value face creams and cosmetics.’<\/p>\n Mr Ratcliff he added that the group have clear aims: ‘They are stealing keys to the secure cabinets within these stores where the products are stored. They go in. Five, six, seven of them at a time. They open the drawer and they fill the bags’.<\/p>\n In the year to March, police recorded 339,206 cases of shoplifting – but the BRC estimated the true figure was eight million, costing shops nearly \u00a31billion across the year.<\/span><\/p>\n Criminal networks are travelling around the UK and ‘stealing to order’ in a manner resembling county lines gangs, the BRC said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Popular goods to target include\u00a0<\/span>high-value electricals, alcohol and cigarettes.<\/span><\/p>\n The crime has now extended to everyday items from meat, cheese and laundry liquid to nappies and baby formula.\u00a0<\/p>\n Romanians Marian Oprescu, 27, and his girlfriend Alexandra Radu, 24, of Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, stole\u00a0\u00a330,000 worth of alcohol and perfumes from Tesco supermarkets across the country.\u00a0<\/p>\n Oprescu, who was jailed for more than two years, acted alone in many instances between February and August this year – stealing from stores in 11 English counties from Gloucestershire to Northumberland.<\/p>\n Shakita Maximilian and Yasmin Leech were spotted stealing \u00a3300 worth of Lego from an Asda store in Doncaster, South Yorkshire\u00a0<\/p>\n Leech (left) and Maximilian were jailed for 10 weeks and 16 weeks respectively\u00a0<\/p>\n Alexandru Cercel, 39, was sentenced last month for his part in a shoplifting ring that stole over \u00a330,000-worth of champagne and spirits.<\/p>\n In one incident, he entered a supermarket in Cambridge eight times in one day, stealing spirits worth more than \u00a31,000.<\/p>\n The most recent theft was on June 13 this year when Cercel fleeced a Tesco store in Maidstone, Kent, along with two cronies. They concealed eight bottles of spirits worth \u00a3300.<\/p>\n Police enquiries established that Cercel had booked a ferry from Dover to France on July 1 this year.<\/p>\n Robert-Claudiu Alexe, 24, and Elena-Brindusa Efta, 35, were jailed last month for working in a gang that stole goods\u00a0worth at least \u00a365,000 from Morrisons stores across the UK in a ‘sophisticated and organised’ operation.<\/span><\/p>\n The pair travelled hundreds of miles to target up to 69 branches of the supermarket chain, using<\/span>\u00a0foil-lined bags to steal high value products worth up to \u00a31,000 a time from Morrisons stores in a seven month spree across 26 counties.<\/span><\/p>\n The duo used foil-lined bags to steal goods they could sell on quickly including alcohol, cosmetics, make-up, hygiene products such as razor blades and electric toothbrush heads, Nicorette patches, ink cartridges and batteries.\u00a0<\/p>\n Recent figures from the Co-op revealed almost 300,000 incidents, often involving abuse, violence and anti-social behaviour, at its stores this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Co-op said it has seen an average of around 1,000 incidents a day across its 2,400 stores so far this year, which is up by 43 per cent on last year.\u00a0<\/p>\n Romanian shoplifters\u00a0Robert-Claudiu Alexe, 24, and Elena-Brindusa Efta, 35, travelled hundreds of miles to target up to 69 branches of Morrisons\u00a0<\/p>\n Shocking CCTV footage revealed earlier this year shows Joseph Tait (centre) brazenly taking armfuls of chilled food from the fridges of Sainsbury’s in Newcastle<\/p>\n These include over 1,130 physical assaults, up 35 per cent, against store workers, and more than 36,000 incidents, up 39 per cent, of anti-social behaviour and abuse.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n One of the knock-on effects of the shoplifting scourge has been a major spike in the need for security guards.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Phil Bentley, boss of outsourcer Mitie, said last month he had seen revenues jump due to increased demand for his staff.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The FTSE-listed 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.<\/p>\n The demand for store security helped Mitie raise its revenues by 11 per cent in the past six months.<\/p>\n
One company said it had\u00a0identified a gang of more than 100 shoplifters that steal high-value items in bulk to sell or ship abroad. There are currently 15 children within its ranks, with some smuggled into Britain from the age of 12.\u00a0
<\/span><\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/12\/12\/09\/78858947-12853949-Two_well_dressed_thieves_walk_close_behind_a_woman_in_Piccadilly-a-34_1702374907285.jpg\")
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<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/12\/12\/09\/78859073-12853949-Williams_also_stole_items_from_supermarkets_including_Co_op_Wait-a-31_1702374604603.jpg\")
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<\/p>\nREAD MORE –\u00a0Shocking moment prolific shoplifter brazenly walks out of Next with hundreds of pounds worth of clothes before stealing \u00a3600 of alcohol from Co-op and pinching slabs of meat from Waitrose\u00a0<\/h3>\n
![](\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/12\/12\/09\/78686189-12853949-Alexandra_Radu_24_pleaded_guilty_to_seven_thefts_worth_6_000_Her-a-4_1702373863266.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/12\/12\/09\/78685901-12853949-Marian_Oprescu_27_pleaded_guilty_to_27_shop_thefts_worth_around_-a-7_1702373875404.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/12\/12\/09\/78685899-12853949-The_pair_captured_on_CCTV_strolled_along_multiple_Tesco_aisles_b-a-8_1702373889361.jpg\")
<\/p>\nREAD MORE:\u00a0We live in the shoplifting capital of Britain… it’s completely LAWLESS<\/h3>\n
![](\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/12\/12\/09\/78223555-12853949-The_brazen_thieves_can_be_seen_stuffing_the_Lego_into_carrier_ba-a-10_1702373901525.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/12\/12\/09\/78223559-12853949-Leech_34_of_Springwell_Lane_Balby_walked_into_the_Asda_store_and-a-18_1702373992960.jpg\")
\n![](\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/12\/12\/09\/78223563-12853949-Maximilian_25_of_Chesterfield_Road_Sheffield_was_convicted_of_fo-m-17_1702373988510.jpg\")
<\/p>\nREAD MORE:\u00a0Are you a target? Expert pickpocket shows just how easy it is to steal mobile phones from unsuspecting victims\u00a0<\/h3>\n
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<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/12\/12\/09\/77419983-12853949-Shocking_CCTV_footage_revealed_earlier_this_month_shows_Joseph_T-a-11_1702373929628.jpg\")
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