‘I used to be a £3m shoplifter – swiping 1000’s of kilos value of booze was straightforward’

An ex-shoplifter who stole £3million worth of items believes Brits now have “a licence to steal” as shoplifting incidents reach record highs.

Cullan Mais, 32, used to nab £2k of items a day – up to £14k-a-week – before turning over a new leaf. He now reckons the only way for the UK to combat the surge in shoplifting is to toughen up the law – making sentences longer as a deterrent.

Cullan, who has been banged up 10 times, all for shoplifting offences, and served a total of three years, is now on the straight and narrow but believes “People now have a licence to steal and it’s getting even worse with the cost-of-living crisis”.

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Cullan, a podcaster who works for a charity that helps people with drug addictions, from Cardiff, Wales, said: “People now have total licence to steal. I think personally, if it’s on an organised level, the sentences need to be harsher because at at the end of the day these people know penalties are weak.

“When you go to an off licence, everything is behind Perspex – it’s a bit dystopian but it works. Big supermarkets should lock up all meat, booze, aftershave, and then just have a guy there whose job it is to unlock the goods for shoppers.”

Cullan says one of the reasons he would shoplift so much is because the sentences for shoplifting weren’t off-putting. “I used to weigh it up and think I’d rather go out and make thousands a day nicking stuff rather than risking my life trying to sell drugs – and getting a much longer sentence if I was caught.”

Cullan began taking heroin at 18 and says the addiction spiralled when he was 22, at which point he got his hands on a car which made it easier to carry out his shoplifting.

Cullan recounted: “The moment I got wheels is the moment I discovered shoplifting. This was next level – it made it so easy. You could just blag the stuff and make a getaway.” He boasted that at one point, he was raking in £2k-a-day “with ease”, mainly through swiping booze.

“The most I ever managed to steal in one go without a bag was 19 bottles of spirits. It was about six bottles of expensive gin, four bottles of whiskey, and a couple of bottles of C roc vodka, some champagne, Moet and Bollinger.” Cullan says everything changed after he was caught by police in August 2020 when he was 28 – his 10th conviction for shoplifting.

He was set a date for court in October 2020, but shortly after was rushed to hospital with pneumonia and sepsis after a decade of drug abuse caught up with him. While in hospital, Cullan almost died, with doctors just managing to stabilise his condition.

When he appeared in Cardiff Magistrates Court, Cullan informed the court he was clean and had made significant life changes following his near-death experience. The prosecution acknowledged a genuine change in him.

“They agreed to give me a second chance, and didn’t give me a prison sentence,” Cullan said. “After that I slowly managed to recover, both from my heroin and shoplifting addiction. In some ways the shoplifting was harder to kick than heroin.”

Cullan has since outlined the eight changes he would make to end the UK’s shoplifting spree. These are outlined below.

• Make sentencing for shoplifting much harsher

• Lock away all meat and booze and have a specific person employed

• Always have tills close to the exits for added security

• Be aware of blind spots tucked away and make sure you keep an eye on them at all times

• Keep the ultra-valuable stuff off the shop floor

• Use empty boxes for higher valuable goods if they need to be displayed

• Have security on the shop floor at all times

• Don’t keep any spirits on shop floors

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