A serial shoplifter who perpetrated a widespread scheme of dishonesty and fraud against major high street retailers, resulting in losses of £500,000, has been sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Fifty-four-year-old Narinder Kaur of Cleverton, Wiltshire, embarked on a nationwide 'shopping spree,' which defrauded prominent retailers such as Debenhams, John Lewis, House of Fraser, and TK Maxx by falsely obtaining refunds for stolen merchandise.
The most substantial fraud was perpetrated against Boots, where Kaur fraudulently obtained £60,787 in refunds from seven stores across the UK between July 2015 and February 2019, despite having made only £5,172 in purchases during the same period.
Additionally, she fraudulently obtained £42,853 in refunds from Debenhams after making only £3,681 in purchases over four years. Kaur also received £33,131 in refunds from John Lewis stores in Milton Keynes, Watford, Chester, and Nottingham, despite spending just £5,290 between August 2015 and December 2018.
Kaur also visited multiple Monsoon stores in the West Midlands, South Wales, and the Thames Valley region, where she fraudulently claimed £23,000 more in refunds than she had spent. Additionally, she defrauded Homesense of £18,000, TK Maxx of approximately £14,500, and Homebase of £3,200.
A Career Built On Deception
Kaur, also known as Nina Tiara, has a lengthy criminal history dating back to her teenage years. The court heard she dedicated herself full-time to a nationwide fraud spree, travelling extensively to execute her deceitful schemes.
CCTV footage captured Kaur entering stores, selecting items from the shelves, and proceeding to the checkout as if they had previously purchased merchandise. A meticulous analysis of her financial records corroborated the CCTV evidence, revealing a consistent pattern of purchases followed by fraudulent refunds occurring hundreds of times.
"This defendant made it a full-time and lucrative endeavour," Gareth Weetman said. "This was inherently sophisticated offending with sustained planning, carried out over a five-year period with a large number of victims."
Weetman stated that Kaur manipulated the empathy of cashiers and store managers by fabricating distressing tales about sick relatives to facilitate her criminal activities. Kaur's deceptive behaviour extended beyond commercial fraud.
According to a report by MailOnline, she provided false documentation to a magistrates' court to evade speeding convictions. She misled a crown court in an attempt to modify her bail conditions. Two police searches of her home yielded approximately £150,000 in concealed cash and stolen property.
A jury previously found Kaur guilty of 26 charges, including fraud, possession and transfer of criminal property, and perverting the course of justice. Defence counsel John Cooper KC argued that the defendant's mental health, which had deteriorated during the prolonged legal process, should be considered a mitigating factor.
"She has been a victim of bullying and racial abuse - it has not been easy. It has been extremely difficult for her and will continue to be extremely difficult for her. She has not found it easy," Cooper said.
Judge Delivers Scathing Rebuke
Having refused to attend the sentencing hearing at Eastwood Park Prison, Kaur was condemned to a ten-year prison term in absentia. Judge Ian Lawrie KC, the Recorder of Gloucester, described her crimes as "stubbornly persistent and on a near-Olympian scale."
"You indulged in a veritable tsunami of dishonesty and deceit on a varied assortment of victims. The majority of that dishonesty and deceit was carried out over a significant range of retail outlets covering an extensive geographical area from north to south, Warrington to Plymouth, and from east to west, London Colney to Swansea," the judge said.
The judge noted that this extensive fraud was perpetrated across a vast geographical expanse, spanning from Warrington to Plymouth north to south and from London Colney to Swansea east to west, targeting a wide range of retail outlets.
"There seems to have been no limit to your offending, all of which was conducted with resolute persistence, unburdened by restraint or inhibition," he added. According to the judge, the scale of this criminal enterprise was akin to an industrial operation.
With a total loss to retailers exceeding £500,000, the court determined that a substantial custodial sentence was the only appropriate punishment given the severity and extent of the offences.
Shoplifting is a persistent problem, with thieves employing increasingly creative methods. For example, a report from 2017 detailed how a teenager constructed a fake baby using a bra cup to facilitate theft.
It is important to remember that even the most cunning criminals can be caught. Regardless of their ingenuity or perceived authority, shoplifters often face legal consequences. For instance, a US police officer was recently arrested and transported to jail in her squad car for stealing a pair of shoes worth £110.
