A Peterborough woman who travelled the country as part of an organised shoplifting gang has been jailed for stealing around £48,000 in stock from Tesco stores. Cristina Curt, aged 27, of Russell Street, Peterborough, was part of a gang which targeted the chain, regularly making off with thousands of pounds worth of stock in a single day.
Her items of choice were cosmetics and healthcare items including wart and nail treatments and her highest value single theft was worth £3,341.
Her crime spree ended when she entered a store in King’s Lynn on 12 October 2024 and was recognised by a security guard there.
Investigations by Norfolk police working with Tesco unravelled the scale of her offending and she admitted to 16 theft from shop offences.
While on remand she engaged with Op Converter who were able to detect a further 26 offences to be taken into account at sentencing by the court.
These were eight attempted thefts and 18 full thefts.
Evidence gathered showed she was involved in a total of 42 offences accounting for around £48,000 worth of stock.
The majority of the charged thefts took place in July of this year and accounted for almost £16,000 of the total.
The 26 other offences that were taken into consideration amounted to around £32,000 and took place between April and September of this year spanning 17 police force areas.
She appeared at Norwich Crown Court on Friday 24 January 2025, where she was jailed for 18 months.
Following her sentencing PC Alice Crome who led the investigation said: “Curt spent months travelling around the UK and was very much on the radar by the time she was caught in Norfolk.
“Thanks to the vigilance of the security guard on the day and the work of Tesco in analysing CCTV and circulating her image we have been able to drill down into her offending not just in Norfolk but across the country and bring her to justice.”
Staff supervisor for Op Converter Duncan Etchells described the sums involved as “eye-watering.”
He added: “I hope this result shows Norfolk Police takes shoplifting offences extremely seriously. We are grateful to Tesco for their work in tracking her across the country. By travelling large distances between the stores Curt believed she could remain under the radar.
“Clearly this was not the case and Norfolk Police will continue to work with retailers to tackle retail theft and catch up with those who try to out-fox us.”
