A man who stole more than 300 Cadbury’s Creme Eggs from a Peterborough petrol station has been banned from Cambridgeshire for three months.
Police arrested 26-year-old Deon De Groot after he entered a Tesco Express in Welland Road, Dogsthorpe, at about 11.40am on Saturday (22 March). He was seen packing the chocolate eggs into a duffle bag.
He stashed away £220.50 worth of Cadbury Creme Eggs and left the store without paying, weeks ahead of Easter, said Cambridgeshire Constabulary.
A member of staff flagged down officers in a passing police car who followed De Groot. They found he had a large number of the stolen goods concealed within his jacket and had dropped the duffle bag filled with boxes of Creme Eggs nearby.
De Groot, who is of no fixed address, appeared at Peterborough Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday where admitted to theft from a shop.
He was sentenced to 12 weeks in prison, suspended for a year, and was also banned from entering Cambridgeshire for the next three months.
Police constable Guy Cunningham, who made the arrest, said: “Thanks to the quick reaction by staff who flagged us down, we were able to catch De Groot red-handed and return the stolen items to the store.”
Creme Eggs remain an Easter favourite, cracking the top 50 most popular confectioneries, according to YouGov’s latest figures from the final quarter of 2024.
Ranked at 49 in the list, it came in just below After Eights, while Maltesers took the crown as the number one most popular confectionery.
