Shoplifter jailed

I wanted to highlight this job that I helped my colleagues with last Friday.

On Thursday last week (16th April) Luke Sharpless, 27 years old of Parkham Street SW11 stole three whole lamb legs and a carrier bag from Waitrose, St John’s Road SW11. Staff attempted to stop him despite him apparently intimating that he had a knife but he got away. Police were called and a good description of Sharpless was given but he could not be found.

The next day, PC Michele Jones from Northcote SNT and PC Emily Hale and PCSO Charlotte Warrell from Lavender SNT were asked to go to the store to carry out follow up enquiries. While they were inside talking to the manager and reviewing CCTV another staff member saw Sharpless walk in to Waitrose and recognised him. He left the store without stealing anything that day but store staff chased after him followed by Michele, Charlotte and Emily.

In the street outside the store Michele attempted to grab hold of Sharpless but he got away and tried to run. I say “tried to” because Charlotte (best 5k time = 28 minutes) soon caught up with him and he was arrested. I was involved with taking Sharpless to the Police Station and searching him.

Sharpless was charged with shoplifting and appeared at Magistrates Court on Saturday morning.

He was found guilty and sentenced to one week in prison for the theft from Waitrose, and an additional six weeks imprisonment because this offence activated a previous suspended sentence order.

It is sometimes written in the press or on social media that shop staff are told not to challenge shoplifters, or that Police don’t arrest people who are caught shoplifting – but this excellent piece of work by officers from your local Safer Neighbourhoods Teams shows that this is not always true. People like Sharpless, who was described by the judge as having “a flagrant disregard for people and their property”, do get arrested and put before the courts.