‘3k-a-day’ shoplifter calls for more support for offenders

For one of the most prolific shoplifters in the UK, every operation would begin the same way.

- ALEX ROSS

The night before, Cullan Mais would load up Google Maps on his mobile phone and mark out a “fishing rod-like” route through several towns to finish back in his home city of Cardiff.

He’d call his driver and the next morning he would embark on a lucrative shoplifting spree, making off with up to £3,000 worth of goods, from food to sunglasses and even Yankee candles.

“I wouldn’t leave a shop empty-handed, sometimes I’d go in two or three times,” said the 34-year-old, who highlighted Coop supermarkets, Specsavers and garden centres as among his top targets.

Wearing a trenchcoat, he could fit more than a dozen bottles of spirits in his clothing before walking up to the till to buy a pack of chewing gum to avoid detection. And it worked.

“I had a lavish lifestyle because anything I ever needed, whether it was food, clothes, alcohol or something for the missus, I just stole it,” he said. Cullan Mais was sent to prison 10 times by the age of 28