'Criminologist went on shoplifting spree for high value goods'

A CRIMINOLOGY lecturer went on a shoplifting spree taking more than a thousand pounds worth of cookware, steaks, wine and gin, a court heard.

- Mark Reynolds

Pauline Al Said, 33, was caught trying to take £500 of alcohol and gifts from a garden centre while armed with a de-tagging device, jurors were told. Prosecutors said the academic was later caught with 33 thick-cut sirloin, rib eye and fillet steaks in her trolley in a branch of Marks & Spencer.

When she was confronted at the garden centre, her husband Mark Wheatcroft allegedly threatened to "lay out" the store detective and then threw a punch.

Al Said, a former senior lecturer in criminology at Bath Spa University, and Wheatcroft, 54, made the first shoplifting attempt at the Old Barn nursery in Horsham, West Sussex, on December 14, 2021, a court heard.