A serial shoplifter who stole more than £2,000 of drinks from a single Greggs in London has avoided prison.
Tiffany O’Neill has so far been arrested and taken to court 11 times and charged with 69 theft offences.
But she has been allowed to walk free thanks to new rules requiring short sentences to be suspended.
O’Neill, 28, was caught on CCTV raiding fridges at the Greggs branch in Brixton for soft drinks including Lucozade and Innocent smoothies.
She appeared at Croydon Magistrates’ Court today, where she pleaded guilty to 80 offences.
But the prolific thief got off with a 26-week prison sentence, suspended for 12 months.
She is also barred from all Gregg’s stores nationwide for two years and from entering Brixton town centre.
She had been banned from Lambeth and ordered to wear a GPS tag to track her movements but the device was never fitted.
Three of her previous hearings were adjourned after she failed to turn up in court and a fourth was delayed due to technical issues.
Officers have spent more than 120 hours investigating O’Neill’s repeated offences.
Assistant Commissioner Matt Twist said officers are ‘increasingly arresting the same people again and again’.
Almost a third of all shoplifting incidents where a suspect was identified are linked to just 104 serial offenders.
They were responsible for some 4,389 offences over the last two financial years.
‘The cumulative impact on retailers and their staff is enormous,’ Twist added.
‘While we have made significant progress in tackling shoplifting, cases like this show why greater focus on prolific offenders remains essential and how police alone cannot fix this.’
Sergeant Chris Wilkinson said it’s a ‘disappointment’ that O’Neill’s, ‘who we know has reoffended so frequently, is now back out in the community’.
New laws require judges and magistrates to suspend sentences of less than a year except in very limited circumstances.
Wilkinson added: ‘We hope this marks a change in her offending, but if it doesn’t, we will be there to intervene and put her back before the courts.’
Gregg’s Chief Executive Rosie Currie said the chain was rolling out new technology to record and report incidents to authorities and is trialling a new format at a small number of shops particularly exposed to crime.
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