'Prolific' Greggs shoplifter avoids jail despite stealing £2,000 worth of soft drinks from bakery

A "prolific" Greggs shoplifter has avoided prison despite stealing more than £2,000 worth of soft drinks from a single bakery.

The Metropolitan Police said since May, Tiffany O'Neill, 28, has been arrested, charged and remanded to court 11 times, before ultimately charged with 69 theft offences.

Yesterday, she appeared at Croydon Magistrates’ Court having already pleaded guilty to a total of 80 offences.

Despite the scale of her offending, Ms O'Neill was handed down a 26 week sentence, suspended for 12 months.

Since constraints on magistrates and judges came into effect earlier this year, sentences of less than one year are automatically suspended in the vast majority of cases.

The Met said it was highlighting the 28-year-old's case to underline its continued calls for the criminal justice system to hold prolific offenders to account and prevent them from doing harm to the capital's communities.

The force said its officers spent roughly 120 hours on the convicts' case alone since her arrest in May.

This work included preparing case files, carrying out further arrests and attending court hearings.

At all but one court appearance in recent months she was granted bail, despite repeatedly breaching her bail conditions and returning to target the same Greggs store on Electric Avenue in Brixton.

O’Neill was initially banned from entering the London Borough of Lambeth and required to wear a GPS tag as a condition of her bail - however, this monitoring device was never fitted.

She failed to appear in court for sentencing hearings on three occasions, while a fourth earlier this week was delayed due to technical faults.

The Met Police blasted her failure to appear as a "waste of court time" and warned it increased the workload on officers who had to track down the serial offender and detain her.

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Alongside her suspended prison sentence, O'Neill was handed down a Criminal Behaviour Order, prohibiting her from entering Brixton town centre and all Greggs stores in the UK for two years.

Sergeant Chris Wilkinson, who led the investigation, said: “Our officers worked relentlessly over several months to build the evidence needed to bring this prolific offender before the courts.

“Despite multiple arrests and repeated offences, we remained focused on securing a positive outcome for our community. Her persistent offending caused repeated distress to staff, harmed the business and placed a significant demand on police resources.

“We recognise that courts are obliged to follow the guidelines on suspending sentences, but it’s obviously a disappointment that someone who we know has reoffended so frequently is now back out in the community.

“We hope this marks a change in her offending, but if it doesn’t we will be there to intervene and put her back before the courts.”

Assistant commissioner Matt Twist issued a stark warning over a small number of offenders being responsible for the majority of crime and harm on the streets of London.

He said: "We are increasingly arresting the same people again and again when they ignored bail or license conditions, not complied with their electronic tags, or in many cases all of the above. The cumulative impact on retailers and their staff is enormous.

“Our focus has to be on putting suspects before the courts. We need the CPS, courts, prisons and probation to work with us to break the cycle of continued release and re-offending.

"While we have made significant progress in tackling shoplifting, cases like this show why greater focus on prolific offenders remains essential and how police alone cannot fix this.”

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