Shoplifting gang who filled up 857 trollies stealing £130,000 of goods handed themselves in after police sent them ultimatum letter
A shoplifting family who travelled the country stealing 857 trollies of goods worth £130,000 handed themselves in after police issued an ultimatum.
A shoplifting family who travelled the country stealing 857 trollies of goods worth £130,000 handed themselves in after police issued an ultimatum.
For two years, the organised criminal gang toured Tesco supermarkets from Suffolk to Somerset, Surrey and Cornwall brazenly walking out each time after filling as many as ten trollies to the brim.
The nationwide shoplifting spree might have continued but for a diligent police officer who noticed similarities in 86 thefts across 13 police force areas.
He tracked down a family of two sisters and a daughter, working with three other shoplifters and issued an ultimatum to the gang- hand yourselves in within two weeks or face arrest.
The threat worked, with a lawyer contacting the force within days offering to arrange police interviews for the six.
This week the final members of gang were finally brought to justice, with the ringleaders receiving three years in prison.
Police estimated that the gang had gotten away with at least £130,000 worth of stolen goods between January 2022 and February 2024.
From the 55 trolleys that the gang were stopped from taking, police were able to calculate the average value of stolen goods at £628.
CCTV footage captured the raiders grabbing everything from toilet roll and nappies to alcohol and cleaning products from the shelves, before strolling out with no attempt to pay, and immediately returning to fill up another trolley load.
Jason Raven was jailed for three years
James Mytum was jailed for three years
PC Ben Marshall from Surrey Police discovered that the gang were selling on the goods at cut-down rates in ‘their very own criminal supermarket chain’ after he investigated a theft from a store in Guildford.
He worked out that the gang would deliberately travel significant distances between offences, hoping that the forces would not realise the 86 thefts were linked.
For two years the officer methodically gathered evidence, examining CCTV to identify the six thieves, who were all living in Essex.
PC Marshall was worried about the odds of being able to arrest all six at once, so he decided instead to send them an ultimatum letter to say they were under investigation, offering a two-week window to come in voluntarily or face arrest.
PC Marshall then travelled to Essex, conducting back-to-back interviews over the course of one 17-hour-shift which led to all six being charged with conspiracy to commit theft.
As a result, Jason Raven, 50, was jailed for three years after stealing 188 trollies filled with £94,539 worth of goods.
James Mytum, 41, also received three years for taking 143 trollies filled with £71,910 worth of goods.
Tania Patmore, 52, who took 231 trollies worth £116,163, her younger sister Nicola Patmore, 50, who stole 152 trollies worth £76,436, and daughter Marlie Patmore, 29, who swiped 27 trollies with a value of £13,576 were spared jail.
Tania and Nicola were handed two-year suspended sentences, while Marlie received a 20-month suspended sentence.
A fourth member of the gang, Samantha Drum, who took 116 trollies worth £58,332 also received a two-year suspended sentence.
Marlie Patmore received a suspended sentence
Tania Patmore and her relative Marlie Patmore were handed suspended sentences
Judge Robert Fraser told the defendants: It might not be the most sophisticated crime but it was remarkably bare-faced.
The shoplifting at the level you were involved in caused very significant losses to the retailers affected and inevitably the costs are passed on to consumers.
Yesterday PC Marshall said: ‘I am incredibly pleased that these individuals have now been held to account for years of deliberate and targeted offending.
‘I knew I had something when I linked the first few similar offences, but I had no idea at the start of this how far and wide this ‘simple’ shoplifting case in Guildford would eventually go.
‘These criminals assumed they could hide the breadth of their offending by travelling far and wide across the south of England - but they were wrong.
‘Their sentences will have a significant impact on reducing their propensity and their ability to re-offend.’
Hannah Galloway from Tesco Security Hub thanked the diligent officer: ‘Thanks to the incredible support from Surrey Police during this investigation, these offenders who were targeting our stores up and down the country are no longer.
‘This has made our stores safer for our customers, colleagues and communities in general.’