Northampton shoplifting gang who stole booze worth £1,000 caught by £1 hot cross buns receipt
A shoplifting gang who stole around £1,000 worth of goods from two supermarkets have been jailed thanks to a receipt for a £1 packet of hot cross buns.
Two of them, Ion Grigore and Stefania Negrvsara, filled trolleys with alcohol and clothes, while the other two, Leonard-Viorel Gurau and Ionut Bajenaru, acted as lookouts during both incidents on 24 March.
The thieves, all from Northampton, targeted the Sainsbury’s Eddington store first at around 3.30pm, with CCTV showing Negrvsara and Grigore stealing whiskey and champagne, among other products.
Footage showed Grigore distracting a member of staff, as Negrvsara pushes a trolley filled with items out of the store.
Shortly afterwards, at about 5.30pm, the group went to Sainsbury’s in Coldhams Lane and again, Grigore and Negrvsara are seen on CCTV loading bottles of alcohol in a trolley.
As Negrvsara pushed the trolley out of the store, he was challenged by a security guard, so he abandoned the trolley and ran off.
About an hour later, traffic officers pulled over the Nissan X-Trail the thieves were travelling in, on the A14 at Thrapston, on the Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire border.
Gurau, was found to be driving with no insurance and a defective tyre and while inspecting the car, officers noticed their loot.
It included 10 bottles of Jack Daniels, five bottles of cognac, four bottles of Moet champagne, 12 cans of various cider and ales, a prosecco gift box, three bath towels and clothing.
A receipt for a £1 packet of hot cross buns was found in the car, placing the four at Coldhams Lane when the thefts took place, which tallied with the CCTV images.
Grigore, Negrvsara and Gurau, who all live at Station Road, Great Billing, and Ionut Bajenaru, of no fixed address, all pleaded guilty at Peterborough Magistrates Court on 27 March.
Grigore was sentenced to 12 weeks in prison for two counts of theft and Gurau, was sentenced to 10 weeks for two counts of theft and was disqualified from driving for nine months for use of a motor vehicle with a tyre cord exposed and no third-party insurance.
Negrvsara was handed a 16-week jail term and Bajenaru was sentenced to 10 weeks after both pleaded guilty to two counts of theft.
A Cambridgeshire Police spokesman said: "Shoplifting can have a huge impact on both businesses and those who work for them.
“It often comes hand-in-hand with other crimes including criminal damage and violence."
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