Shoplifter jailed for £500k refund crime spree

A prolific shoplifter has been jailed for 10 years after stealing from more than 1,000 shops across the country.

Narinder Kaur from Cleverton, Wiltshire, tricked high street stores into giving her about £500k in refunds for goods she had stolen.

Kaur was found guilty of 25 separate offences in March 2023, including fraud, possessing and transferring criminal property and perverting the course of justice.

Sentencing Kaur in her absence, Judge Ian Lawrie KC, at Gloucester Crown Court described her as a "thoroughly dishonest individual".

Kaur, originally from Worcester, deceived shops, banks, solicitors and even the courts throughout her criminal career.

The serial shoplifter travelled all over the country, robbing stores in Solihull, Worcester, Cheltenham, Malvern, Shrewsbury, Cardiff, Trowbridge, Reading and Yeovil, among other locations.

At her trial at Gloucester Crown Court, prosecutors said the 54-year-old found a way of "beating the system" by getting retailers to pay her the full value of things she had stolen.

She discovered that with many large retailers, she could take an item they sell back in, claim she had bought it but lost the receipt, and then exchange it.

The prosecution proved that Ms Kaur defrauded the various retailers more than a thousand times between July 2015 and February 2019.