SHOCKING footage has captured the moment a shoplifter was caught red-handed in a sting operation after bagging £60,000 worth of products from Boots.
Alexandru-Iulian Dima, 25, was spotted in Pontypridd Boots, South Wales, where retail staff alerted the police station using a radio system.
The Romanian national made a run for it but was apprehended by plain clothes officers in a nearby car park – he was then jailed and issued a deportation order.
This wasn’t before Dima managed to steal thousands of pounds worth of products from the popular beauty retailer all over the UK within the space of a year.
Pontypridd officer, PC Liam Noyce: “We looked at intel around his offending and chose the day we believed he’d come to town.
“Low and behold, we had the call from staff at Boots and we arrested him, bringing an end to the campaign of crime committed in towns and cities the length and breadth of the UK.
“We understand how vital retailers both large and small are to the town and are determined and committed to ensure they are protected from criminality.”
Dima was jailed on August 8 after pleading guilty to 32 shoplifting offences which landed him four years in Cardiff Crown Court.
The 25-year-old is one of 152 individuals identified by the Operation Opal team as a prolific shoplifter who are used by organised crime groups that shoplift en masse.
Opal is a centralised police unit set up to address serious organised acquisitive crime, including systematic shoplifting, which has been blamed for the 25 per cent surge in retails thefts last year.
The police have reported a total of 443,995 offences in the year up to March, according the Office for National Statistics – this equates to more than 50 offences an hour.
Opal was offered £600,00 funding from 13 top retailers including Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Waitrose and Joh Lewis to try and tackle these figures.
This is done through through CCTV analysis, number plate recognition systems, and dashcam footage provided by retailers.
The recordings are put through the police database and repeat offenders are identified through facial recognition technologies.
Dima was spotted by Operation Opal alongside fellow shoplifter Brendon Brain who stole more than £33,000 worth of goods and covering 16 police force areas.
Brain was arrested by Devon and Cornwall police, after intelligence from Opal, and given a prison sentence of 16-months.
He had been stealing a range of items including fragrances, electricals, and baby products.
The lack of consequences for shoplifters has garnered heavy criticism with claims that the lack of enforcement has essentially decriminalised the offence.
Police chiefs claim with Operation Opal as a new national intelligence unit organised patterned shoplifting will decrease.
An National Police Chief’s council 2023 press release states there were 93 arrests as a result by co-ordination work by Opal already, with 71 positive outcomes.
Head of intelligence at Opal Stephanie Coombes said: “Opal has been carrying out this role for other crime types for a number of years and we have seen significant successes from having a national overview of what’s happening in the organised crime world.
“As we’ve seen, organised crime groups may be targeting one retailer using the same tactics across multiple regions and without a national team to bring together that information, we could have several police forces each looking into the same group.
“Our role is vital in centralising intelligence, building strong evidence packages and then working with the relevant forces to deal with these high harm offenders.
“For far too long, these groups have been damaging retailers and communities with thefts reaching hundreds of thousands of pounds and we are now quite literally ensuring they have nowhere to hide.”
