[MSN] Wales, U.K. Thief stole books to order for eBay sales

[Museum Security Network Mailing list]

Thief stole books to order for eBay sales

Feb 2 2008 by Daily Post

A THIEF who stole hundreds of books which he then sold online to pay a
crippling credit card bill was jailed for 21 months yesterday.

Simon Neil James, 39, of Copthorne Lodge, Colwyn Bay, ran up bills of more
than £100,000 using 13 different cards.

James’ spiralling bill left him with minimum payments of £3,000 a month
after he used the cards to buy electronic items like computers and a guitar.

He stole books to order for his eBay account, Mold Crown Court heard
yesterday.

James pleaded guilty to six charges of theft, totalling more than £350 of
books, acquiring cash, and stealing property and selling it on, as well as
two charges of deception.

Judge Philip Hughes told him: “This offending is serious, greedy, and
repeatedly done on a huge scale.”

James was given 21 months for each count of deception, to run alongside each
other, and 12 months in total for the thefts to run along side the thefts.

Matters came to a head in March 2007 when James, who had not worked for 17
years, was caught stealing books valued at more than £80 from a Tesco store
in Llandudno Junction. A security officer saw James selecting books from a
shelf, going to an area where there was no CCTV coverage and hiding the
books in a black holdall.

The alarm was raised as James left the store and police took him to a
station in St Asaph.

A subsequent search of his house found 52 hardback books and a PC showing 14
books were for sale for about £6 each.

Sion ap Mihangel, prosecuting, said: “The majority of, if not all of the
matters came about as a result of a full and frank interview with police.

“Some 2,549 customers had responded to his eBay account, not all as a result
of this behaviour but a great number of them were.

“He said he had sold about 300 books in the build-up to the Christmas before
his arrest.

“He would place an ad, people would respond, and he would then subsequently
steal books to make the order. He confirmed his main target was WH Smith
because it had no CCTV.”

Hugh Edwards, defending, said: “It’s unsophisticated, there’s no use of any
of the hallmarks of a serious shoplifter. There’s the same lack of
sophistication in the applications for the credit cards. He simply filled in
the forms.”

welshnews