Shoplifters exposed: The people guilty of serial thefts in NSW
Shoplifting isn’t a victimless crime – and some sticky-fingered culprits can’t help but return to steal time and time again.
Newcastle
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It’s often touted as a victimless crime, however shoplifting can be anything but.
Accounting for 40 per cent of all retail losses according to NSW Police, shoplifting can do major damage, particularly to small businesses.
Shoplifters can work alone on impulse or to feed addictions, or in co-ordinated syndicates, such as those targeting baby formula.
Across the state, 19,911 thefts from retail stores were recorded last year.
While it’s a staggering figure, that’s down more than 26 per cent from 27,058 the year prior.
NSW Police corporate sponsor for crime prevention, Assistant Commissioner Gelina Talbot, said the drop was unsurprising given lockdowns throughout 2020.
“The reduction in crime rates experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic was largely in relation to crimes that are affected by movement and opportunity,” Asst Comm. Talbot said.
“These categories, which include retail theft, saw a decrease in line with measures implemented across the state to reduce the spread of the pandemic.
“There were periods where retail outlets and shopping centres were closed or had significant restrictions as to who could attend.
“This no doubt impacted on community access to retail facilities and reduced opportunity to commit this type of crime.”
Asst Comm. Talbot said overall, anecdotally, more thefts were being reported due to an increase in CCTV.
Some shoplifters act as a one-off out of necessity, but many return time and again or participate in citywide stealing sprees, taking home hauls of items to keep or sell.
These are some of the state’s worst serial shoplifting offenders.
LEAH FLOYD
A Noraville mum resorted to theft to fuel her drug habit, embarking on a stealing spree spanning from the Central Coast to the Hunter Valley.
Leah Michelle Floyd, 37, targeted Officeworks, David Jones and surf shops as she shoplifted thousands of dollars in products.
Her stealing spree took her to Westfield Tuggerah and Kotara, Stockland Green Hills and Bateau Bay Square among other locations, between July 2020 and January this year.
Among the items she collected were a six-piece cookware set, a Remington hair styling set and baby products.
According to court documents, the mother-of-six worked with one or two other people to case and rob the stores.
“It is evident in CCTV footage that both parties are working with one another in order to obtain product,” the documents said.
“While taking the items both persons of interest (stop) briefly to have short conversations with each other or are distracting workers at the location.”
Floyd was eventually busted with one of her co-accused, and pleaded guilty in Wyong Local Court to 12 shoplifting offences.
She was sentenced to a six-month intensive corrections order, a 12-month community corrections order and forced to repay $5,541.40 to the stores she stole from.
COURTNEY MAZOUDIER
A Nyngan woman assaulted a retail worker when she was caught red-handed stealing cat food.
Courtney Marie Mazoudier, 31, drove to Dubbo on January 20, to commit the extraordinary daylong stealing spree that saw her collect more than $900 in goods.
According to court documents, items stolen included a shovel and Buzz Lightyear toy from Kmart, mangoes, batteries and bubble bath from Coles, novelty games from Smokemart, gutter mesh from Bunnings, and Binkill from Big W.
But it was her final stop at Woolworths that saw her work come undone.
Confronted by the store manager while trying to steal Coke and cat food, Mazoudier told her “I’ll stomp on your head c***” and hit the store manager’s shoulder.
Police were called and found $904 in items on her.
Mazoudier pleaded guilty in Dubbo Local Court to six counts of shoplifting and one of common assault.
She told the court she thought she was “invincible” but “really stuffed up” after coming out of a nine-year relationship.
Mazoudier will be sentenced next month.
MADYSON BROOKS
A Leumeah woman previously convicted of selling drugs at music festivals found herself in trouble with the law again, when she was caught stealing from supermarkets.
Madyson ‘Raven’ Brooks, 25, went on a spree at Campbelltown Mall earlier this year, stealing from both Coles and Woolworths.
According to court documents, Brooks used a cooler bag to steal $68.75 in items from Coles, including acai berry powder, a chocolate mint bar and caramel chocolate chip cookies.
She then filled the cooler bag with more items at Woolworths, but didn’t pay for them as she left the store.
Brooks admitted to the thefts when confronted by loss prevention officers.
“You have a jail sentence hanging over your head when you take things that don’t belong to you,” magistrate Shane McAnulty told her last week in Campbelltown Local Court.
Brooks pleaded guilty to two counts of shoplifting and was fined $400 for each offence.
She was previously sentenced to a two-and-a-half year intensive corrections order after pleading guilty to four counts of drug supply and one of participating in a criminal group.
TORI LISTER
A Newtown woman stole a staggering $13,000 worth of booze in a Sydney-wide shoplifting spree.
Tori Karen Lister, 27, worked with another person in an organised campaign targeting luxury champagne and high-end reds among other items.
The 12-month crime binge, that came undone in June last year, was carried out to feed her heroin habit.
According to court documents, stores the duo hit included Dan Murphy’s at Manly Vale, Mona Vale, Burwood, Gladesville, North Ryde, Coogee, Newtown, Eastwood, Willoughby, Mosman, Petersham and Double Bay, BWS at Kirribilli, Narrabeen and Dee Why, and Vintage Cellars at Newtown.
Among the items stolen were a bottle of Moss Wood cabernet sauvignon valued at $127, seven bottles of Penfolds 389 with a total value of $693 and a Meshach Red retailing for $198.
Lister pleaded guilty in Manly Local Court to 27 counts of larceny.
Her Legal Aid solicitor told the court she was a drug addict from a “significantly disadvantaged background”.
Lister was convicted and sentenced to a 12-month intensive corrections order.
ALYSSA MOON
A Lalor Park woman stole hundreds of dollars in cosmetics to sell online, as well as clothes for her three children, in just the latest instalment in her long history of theft.
Alyssa May Moon, 38, was caught stealing the clothing from Castle Towers Best and Less on June 21, 2019.
Court documents said police were called after security witnessed Moon on CCTV putting the items – worth $196 – into her handbag.
One month later, on July 28, Moon and another woman were busted stealing makeup from Mecca Maxima at Chatswood Chase.
According to court documents, staff watching CCTV saw “the accused and co-accused had removed several cosmetic product items from the display shelves and cabinets (and) placed them into their bags”.
Moon stole $831 in items, including three liquid eyeliners, four glitter eyeshadows, three foundations, three translucent loose setting powders, two concealers and three lip butters.
She and the other woman were confronted in the car park by security.
Hornsby Local Court heard Moon had a history of stealing.
“You’re at the end of your second chances,” magistrate Louise McManus said.
“If you commit another shoplifting offence, you go into custody.
“It looks like shoplifting to sell the products as means of employment rather than stealing food to eat.
“You have a little one with special needs. What the court doesn’t want is you going into custody, who would take care of your children? You have to think about what you want long term.”
Moon was sentenced to a nine-month intensive corrections order and made to complete 50 hours of community service.
LIE KE
A Carlingford woman made hundreds of thousands of dollars selling stolen tins of baby formula in China.
Lie Ke, 50, was the head of an operation shoplifting the infant formula from supermarkets across Sydney, the Central Coast and Newcastle.
Ke paid six thieves between $16 and $25 for each tin, before onselling to China-based customers for a huge profit.
A court heard the mother-of-two, who also ran a Bankstown gift shop during the offending from November 2017 to August 2018, was motivated by money.
“ (Ke) said there was a milk shortage in China and that customers would attend her store looking for baby formula to send to China and she saw a business opportunity,” judge Siobhan Herbert told Parramatta District Court.
“She said she never asked where the product came from and was just grateful she did not have to go buy it in the morning or late at night herself.”
According to court documents, Ke made thousands of sales and moved $394,000 into her partner’s bank accounts before she was caught.
She had about 4,000 tins of formula in her possession at the time of her arrest.
Ke pleaded guilty to recklessly dealing with proceeds of crime and was last year sentenced to up to two years and three months behind bars.
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