Shoplifter who stole £78k worth of goods across UK receives over two years in prison

A man involved in attempting to steal over £78k worth of items in total from stores up and down the country was sentenced to a further 12 months behind bars at Leeds Crown Court this week.

27-year-old Andrei-Theodor Cretu, from London, had pleaded guilty to 15 counts of attempted shop theft at an earlier hearing at Hull Crown Court in March.

In August last year, officers from Humberside Police’s Roads Crime Team were alerted to a vehicle being driven into its area by a man who was believed to be connected to a shop theft from a store in Market Weighton.

Officers stopped the vehicle and upon searching the vehicle, a number of suspected stolen items worth an estimated £1,333 were recovered. Cretu was subsequently arrested on suspicion of shop theft and taken into custody.

After interviewing the offender in custody, further information came to light around the level of his offending, and he was further arrested in connection with a shop theft in Beverley, and one in Southend on Sea. The estimated value of the stolen items totalled over £2,600.

As a result, Cretu was charged and pleaded guilty to all three offences and was sentenced to 16 months in prison following his appearance at Hull Crown Court in January this year, meaning he will spend a total of two years and four months behind bars before being deported.

Whilst in prison, a further investigation into his offending was launched after information was received from other forces about the nature of Cretu’s crimes, and the possibility that he was working as part of a wider organised crime group operating across the country.

In collaboration with colleagues from police forces across the country, trawling hundreds of hours of CCTV and speaking to business owners, Cretu was identified as being active over a 16-month period between April 2023 and August 2024.

Cretu was seen on CCTV entering the stores and taking items from beauty and shaving products to toothbrushes, nappies and razor blades. He would then conceal them within a trolley or bag before attempting to exit.

Cretu was subsequently further arrested in prison on suspicion of 17 counts of shop theft in October last year.

Police Constable Elijah Hartley, who lead the investigation, said: “The result we’ve seen in court today is a reflection of the close working relationships and collaboration we have with our colleagues from multiple different police forces across the country.

“Around 23 police force areas were affected by Cretu’s serial shoplifting sprees, and a pattern of serious organised acquisitive crime offences were identified where the same franchise was being targeted by the same man with the same MO.

“Shop theft is not a low-level crime; it affects businesses, customers, retail staff and even wider communities, and as we’ve seen here, it can also be part of a wider network of criminality where items are sold on all for the sake of financial greed. Shoplifting remains a priority for our force and Neighbourhood Policing teams, along with national organised crime group teams work hard with communities, shops and businesses to reduce this type of offending.”