Two people have been charged following a Kent Police investigation into suspected criminal groups stealing large amounts of alcohol from supermarkets in east Kent.
The arrests were made in London on Friday 10 March after a man and woman were stopped in a vehicle by officers from the Metropolitan Police.
Ionela Catalina Voicu, 30, and Ion Ciprian Dumitru, 40, both of Acacia Road, Walthamstow (London), were each charged on Sunday 12 March with nine counts of shoplifting and one count of attempted theft.
The charges were brought following an investigation into reports of shoplifting in Tesco stores in east Kent between July 2022 and February 2023.
The charges include the theft of:
- £850 worth of alcohol from Tesco in Ramsgate on Sunday 18 December 2022.
- £1,500 worth of alcohol from Tesco in Broadstairs on Saturday 23 July 2022.
- £2,300 worth of alcohol from Tesco in Sheerness on Friday 26 August 2022.
- £875 worth of alcohol from Tesco in Tenterden on Thursday 11 August 2022.
- £350 worth of alcohol from a store in Dover on the same date.
- Alcohol worth £715 from a store in Folkestone on Tuesday 21 February 2023.
- Alcohol worth £2,610 from a store in Tenterden on Saturday 28 January 2023.
- Alcohol worth £2,484 from a store in Tenterden on Sunday 18 December 2022.
- Alcohol worth £1,680 from a store in Redditch (Worcestershire) on Tuesday 12 July 2022.
The charges also include the attempted theft of £720 worth of alcohol from a store in Ramsgate on Thursday 11 August 2022.
The pair appeared at Folkestone Magistrates’ Court on Monday 13 March where they were released on conditional bail.
The case will next be heard at Canterbury Crown Court on Tuesday 11 April.
Long way to come to go shopping 🛍
interesting names , i wonder where we welcomed them from ?????
Romania judging by the names.
I don’t suppose “real world” ever welcomes anyone not born and bred in Thanet.
All possible by a foil lined bag near you.
Must be a lot of foil bags. Just how do two people manage to smuggle out half the booze stands without the security at the door seeing it on their screens or becoming suspicious?
I was approached by the grouchy Northern security guard at Westwood Tesco some years back & had to show him my receipt for 40-50 quids worth of groceries I had just bought.
More down from London jailbirds. Or judging from their names direct from Bucharest or Istanbul, though not Constantinople.
Try not to be so blindingly obviously racist, Steve.
How is it racist? They are Romanian/Turkish names. Try not to get offended over everything & shout racist or whatever phobic at every opportunity.
I’m more than offended by xenophobia and racism. I’m disgusted.
Move to Tunbridge Wells where the other disgusted are then. No Racism/Xenophobia & constantly shouting it is an insult to where it really is happening, or was-like at Manston non processing centre.
I do love it when the wilfully ignorant show their harris to the world, like you do Steve.
If each bottle was worth £35 each,( which they probably weren’t) that’s approx 75 bottles stolen from Tenterden in one day?
If it was a group of say, 10 people, that’s 7-8 bottles each, how were they not seen or challenged?
Could these thefts indicate that there is a potential flaw in self check outs. £12,489 being the value of items stolen and the salary of one person in each of these 8 stores for an 8 hour day = £700 ?
I do not condone thefts because it increases the prices for each and every customer however, these stores need to look at the theft rate and income to the numbers of people they longer employ at a checkout.
This is a WW issue. Australia have the same problems with self checkouts.