Supermarket and bargain shop thief jailed and banned from eight stores

A thief who targeted shops like Home Bargains and B&M on multiple occasions has been banned from eight stores. Richard Brown, of no fixed address, repeatedly stole items from a variety of businesses in the Beeston and Chilwell area – despite being arrested for his crimes a number of times.

On some occasions, his bail conditions meant he was not supposed to enter certain shops – but he ignored those rules and did it anyway. Staff at a number of stores had to be “on their guard” regularly, police said, to try and stop the offender.

But he pleaded guilty to seven counts of theft at Nottingham Magistrates’ Court on Thursday, May 23 after a recent spree between May 11 and May 20, in which he took hundreds of pounds worth of products, including meat, alcohol, and washing items from the Tesco and B&M in Beeston and the Co-Op in Chilwell. He was banned from those stores, as well as five others, for two years.

They are the Co-ops on Queen’s Road and Wilmot Lane in Beeston, Home Bargains and Savers in Beeston and the Heron Foods in Chilwell. He was also jailed for seven months.

PC Dean Bardill, of the Beeston neighbourhood policing team, said: “Security and shop floor staff have been continuously under pressure to spot Brown and try and prevent him from stealing. Regardless of this, Brown has been non complaint and continued to remove items before fleeing the store, on occasions returning to the same store within the same day to re-offend.

“As well as his offending affecting their profits, shop managers raised concerns that their staff members have had to be on their guard every day to look out for and potentially follow Brown around their shops to deter him from stealing, causing them much undue stress and apprehension fearing what Brown might do to them if they approach him.

“He has shown absolutely no regard or respect for the shops and the staff who work within these shops and continued to offend despite previously being arrested and given bail conditions not to enter specific retail stores. Now we have managed to secure this criminal behaviour order against him, we hope it will reduce his harmful offending and lessen the alarm and distress which our local retail premises have had to suffer.

“I also hope it offers some reassurance to the affected premises and those in our community that should Brown break any of the conditions of his criminal behaviour order, our officers have the powers to arrest him, and he can face prosecution for any breaches which would carry even harsher sentences.”