'Prolific' Nottingham shoplifter jailed after attempting to escape from police on child's scooter

Officers from the City Centre Operation Reacher team were patrolling the Clifton area when Mark Diuk rode past. Credit: Nottinghamshire Police

A 'prolific' shoplifter has been jailed after using a child's scooter to escape from police officers.

Mark Duik, 36, was wanted for 19 separate shop thefts when he was spotted by officers in Clifton, Nottingham on Thursday 21 September.

After quickly checking the system to confirm the sighting, police chased Duik and arrested him in Ruddington Lane.

Duik had targeted four different shops during a shoplifting spree in West Bridgford, Clifton, Wilford and Beeston between June and September 2023.

The shoplifter, of no fixed address, had targeted Sainsbury’s in Melton Road, West Bridgford on 13 separate occasions before he was caught.

He appeared before Nottingham Magistrates’ Court on Friday 22 September, where he pleaded guilty to 19 counts of theft, and was sentenced to four months in prison.

Sergeant Louise Ellis, of Nottinghamshire Police’s City Centre Operation Reacher team, said: “This was a great example of our different policing teams engaging with frontline shop staff and working with each other to get a good result.

“This teamwork has ultimately allowed us to take a problematic repeat shoplifting offender off the streets and put him before the courts, where he has since been taken into custody, so we’re very pleased with this result.”

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