Dad bought cheap flights to go on £5k airport duty free shoplifting spree

dailyrecord.co.uk:

A dad bought cheap plane tickets so that he could steal thousands of pounds' worth of duty free perfume at an airport. Gareth Colclough made two trips to East Midlands Airport this summer, where he went through security then swiped £5,700 of products.On both occasions, he made excuses to leave the airport rather than boarding the flight he had paid for.

He was caught after his second shoplifting spree, when staff at the duty free store spotted a large section of missing perfumes, Leicestershire Live reports.The thief, 43, was quickly traced due to the ticket he had bought.

He was then arrested by Leicestershire Police.Colclough pled guilty to the thefts, in June and August, at Leicester Magistrates' Court last Wednesday.

The court heard that the dad-of-two had been sentenced just last month for similar crimes at Birmingham International Airport, where he received a suspended sentence with 105 hours of unpaid work.Prosecutor Sally Bedford said: "These were pre-planned thefts on two different days.