North London Thief Targets Worcester Boots

A North London man stole more than £8,000 worth of cosmetics from Boots in Worcester.

Cornel Gheorghe, 34, of Sutherland Road, Enfield, admitted three charges of theft when he appeared at Worcester Magistrates' Court on Thursday, 19th November 2020.

Theft is an either way offence contrary to section 1 of the Theft Act 1968. The maximum penalty for theft is 7 years in custody. We have previously written an article on the legalities surrounding theft.

The court heard that Gheorghe, a Romanian national, targeted the same store on the city's High Street on three consecutive Mondays.

On Monday, 19th October he stole £4,494 worth of cosmetics from the store. The following Monday, 26th October, he stole a further £2,748 worth of cosmetics. A week later, on Monday, 2nd November, he stole cosmetics to the value of £984.

Shafquat Reaz, prosecuting, said: "The defendant has targeted that store in particular and has taken cosmetics of a high value."

Mr Reaz told Magistrates that in his opinion the offence was aggravated by the high value of the goods stolen and Gheorghe's persistence in repeatedly targeting the same store.

The offences were committed, Mr Reaz said, at a time when Gheorghe knew the store was operating with a reduced level of staffing due to the ongoing coronavirus outbreak.

The prosecutor conceded that Gheorghe had no previous convictions, but it is not clear when he arrived in the UK from Romania.

Given the gravity of the offences, he asked Magistrates to commit Gheorghe to the Crown Court for sentencing.

Glenn Cook, mitigating, argued that the Magistrates had sufficient sentencing powers to deal with his client.

"There's no suggestion at all that he has either used or made any threats of force," said Mr Cook.

"The nature of the offending is not, in my submission, in any way sophisticated and does not require any particular level of planning.

"He simply sweeps items of cosmetics off the shelf and puts them into a bag and walks out."

Mr Cook suggested that the thefts would have less impact on a large retailer like Boots than they would on a small independent retailer, although he said he was not seeking to trivialise them.

Mr Reaz chipped in: "He targets high value goods. He knows exactly what he's doing."

He reminded the bench that the cost of thefts from large retailers was ultimately borne by every legitimate customer.

Having heard both sides of the argument, Magistrates decided that the circumstances of the Gheorghe's offences made them more suitable for sentencing at the Crown Court. They ordered a pre-sentence report.

Gheorghe was granted conditional bail until his sentencing hearing at Worcester Crown Court on Friday, 18th December 2020.

He is not to enter any Boots store in the meantime.

Given the information available, I can understand why the bench made the decision it has.

Gheorghe has travelled many miles to Worcester and filled an empty bag with as many high value cosmetics as he can carry.

It is not clear if the sole purpose of his journeys was to thieve, but the fact he has repeated the same crime, in the same circumstances, on three consecutive Mondays reveals a certain degree of planning and premeditation.

The fact Boots is a large retailer is neither here nor there - as Mr Reaz said, the cost of thefts is ultimately borne by the honest paying customer.