Easter egg thieves broke down shop door to flee with £100 of treats

Two bungling thieves were caught on CCTV stealing £100 worth of Easter eggs from Tesco before getting trapped inside the supermarket.

Jordon King, 28, admitted three counts of shop theft and was jailed for eight weeks at Nottingham Magistrates’ Court on Friday for the crime.

CCTV footage showed the crook entering Tesco Express on Alfreton Road, Radford, Notts., on February 27, with another man.

From there, King grabbed Easter eggs off the shelves before trying to run out of the store, his arms overflowing with the chocolate goodies.

King tried to force open the glass door, which had been locked by security, before placing his six eggs on the floor.

His accomplice then barged the door off its hinges and squeezed himself outside, before lifting the door to let King escape with the eggs.

After his arrest, police discovered King had raided several supermarkets in Radford between February 27 and March 27.

As well as stealing Easter eggs, he also stole nappies and washing pods.

King was identified from CCTV and arrested by officers from the Radford neighbourhood policing team after a tip-off from the public.

He also pleaded guilty to resisting an officer when he was arrested on the morning of March 27.

King, of no fixed address, further admitted to causing criminal damage to the Tesco Express.

King has been ordered to pay back the cost of the items stolen, but Nottinghamshire Police are still hunting for King’s accomplice.

Sergeant Matthew Leask, of Radford’s neighbourhood policing team, said: ‘Shoplifting is not a victimless crime and can have a significant impact on retailers both financially and emotionally.

‘We take shoplifting very seriously and I am pleased we have been able to get a repeat offender like King off the streets.’

In 2023, research showed a 27% increase in retail crime and a £2.8 billion loss from customer theft -described as ‘the tip of the iceberg’ by the British Independent Retailers’ Association (Bira).

The Centre for Retail Research found that shoplifting costs the average UK household £133 per year.

In 2024, the figures jumped dramatically. There was a total of 469,788 offences logged by police forces in England and Wales in the year to June 2024.

That is a 29% leap from the 365,173 recorded in the 12 months previous.

The figure is the highest since current records began in the year to March 2003, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Shoplifting levels had already reached a 20-year high in 2024, with the latest figures showing them rising even higher.

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