Thief caught stealing 5 hoovers from Sainsbury’s is jailed

A thief has been jailed after being caught on camera stealing five hoovers from a supermarket.

Michael King, 44, was captured on CCTV carrying out five hoover raids on five separate days – July 9, 23,25, 27 and 29.

He snuck into Sainsbury’s in Ely, Cambridgeshire and went straight for the devices.

Video footage shows him carrying out a large white box containing the electrical item on his first raid on July 9. 

He is seen looking shiftily over his shoulder as he scuttles out of the branch with one of the household devices. 

A man has been jailed after stealing five hoovers from Sainsbury’s on five separate occasions

Michael King, 44,  shown on the clip leaving the store with a large white box containing the domestic appliances on his first raid

He also stole groceries from a BP in Witchford Road and Waitrose on six occasions between June 9 and August 4. The total value of the stolen items was £1,948.

At Cambridge Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday September 10, King, was sentenced to 32 weeks in prison after pleading guilty to 11 counts of shoplifting.

His conviction activated a previous suspended sentence.

PC Skye Woodhouse, who investigated, said: ‘King has caused misery to businesses across Ely.

‘We hope this sentence will provide some respite to shops impacted by his offending and allow him the opportunity he needs to get support and stop shoplifting.’

It comes amid the worsening shoplifting epidemic across Britain, as stores arm their security guards with bodycams, while advising employees to not risk taking on criminals.

The thief is shown briefly glancing behind him as he exits the store in Ely, Cambridgeshire

Concerns are mounting that the wave of petty crimes is being further driven by the perception that shoplifting is risk-free, as more and more thieves are let off the hook.

Just 431 shoplifters in the year to March received fixed penalty notices – the lowest form of punishment for goods under £100 – down 98 per cent from 19,419 a decade ago. 

The use of cautions has also plummeted by 87 per cent since 2014. 

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has pledged to remove the £200 threshold for crimes and tighten laws to ban repeat offenders from town centres. 

Almost 444,000 shoplifting offences were recorded by forces in England and Wales in the year to March, up from 342,428 in the previous 12 months – the highest figure since records began in 2003.