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Kids 'paid in cigarettes' to steal vodka, gin and rum for organised crime gangs
Hard-up youths are agreeing to steal vodka, whisky, rum and gin in return for just 20 cigarettes, while Sainsbury’s and M&S staff were forced to barricade their customers inside as thugs rampaged in the street.
Shoplifting gangs are despatching youngsters to nick booze in return for a packet of fags. Hard-up youths are agreeing to steal vodka, whisky, rum and gin in return for just 20 cigarettes.
The shock development comes just days after hundreds of school-age yobs, some with knives, looted stores in Clapham, South London, after arranging "linkups" on TikTok. While Sainsbury’s and M&S staff were forced to barricade their customers inside as thugs rampaged in the street.
Now we can reveal impressionable pilferers are being asked to steal two bottles of alcohol including popular brands of vodka, whiskey, rum, or gin, in return for a paltry payment of just 20 cigarettes.
A Lidl security source in south London told us: “Gangs are sending youngsters in to steal two bottles of alcohol in return for a packet of cigarettes. I say to them when I catch them, ‘you are risking your life for a pack of cigarettes, you could go to prison.’
“The person that sent them will never get caught. But they never want to give the name up the name of the boss.”
He added: “Someone comes in before and scopes out the place, checks where everything is in store, and writes them a shopping list of what to steal.”
In January we revealed theft gangs were recruiting child shoplifters from care homes. Kids as young as four were being caught nicking from stores for organised crime groups, like Fagan’s urchins in Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist according to cops.
While in 2024 we told how pilferers at Lidl were using hammers to knock security tags from alcohol bottles while others were brazenly burning them off with cigarette lighters.
Workers at one store told us the pilferers changed tactics almost weekly to hoodwink them.
At the time mums were stashing stolen goods under prams and buggies carrying their kids, while others stuffed plastic bags from other stores with swiped stuff before paying for a few "legit" items.
Lidl rolled out body cameras in stores at a cost of over £2 million 18 months ago.
Also in 2024 we reported how crooked families were using five-year-old’s to steal from stores such as Poundstretcher in Croydon, south London.
Lucy Whing, Crime Policy Lead at the British Retail Consortium, said: “Criminals and organised gangs are targeting products that are easy to move and sell on.
“Retailers have invested over £5 billion in the last five years to tackle theft and crime, including plastic sliders on shelves, and security tags. Ultimately such theft is not a victimless crime, pushing up the price for honest shoppers.”
Lidl were contacted for comment.
Daily Star Sunday
Hard-up youths are agreeing to steal vodka, whisky, rum and gin in return for just 20 cigarettes, while Sainsbury’s and M&S staff were forced to barricade their customers inside as thugs rampaged in the street.
Shoplifting gangs are despatching youngsters to nick booze in return for a packet of fags. Hard-up youths are agreeing to steal vodka, whisky, rum and gin in return for just 20 cigarettes.
The shock development comes just days after hundreds of school-age yobs, some with knives, looted stores in Clapham, South London, after arranging "linkups" on TikTok. While Sainsbury’s and M&S staff were forced to barricade their customers inside as thugs rampaged in the street.
Now we can reveal impressionable pilferers are being asked to steal two bottles of alcohol including popular brands of vodka, whiskey, rum, or gin, in return for a paltry payment of just 20 cigarettes.
A Lidl security source in south London told us: “Gangs are sending youngsters in to steal two bottles of alcohol in return for a packet of cigarettes. I say to them when I catch them, ‘you are risking your life for a pack of cigarettes, you could go to prison.’
“The person that sent them will never get caught. But they never want to give the name up the name of the boss.”
He added: “Someone comes in before and scopes out the place, checks where everything is in store, and writes them a shopping list of what to steal.”
In January we revealed theft gangs were recruiting child shoplifters from care homes. Kids as young as four were being caught nicking from stores for organised crime groups, like Fagan’s urchins in Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist according to cops.
While in 2024 we told how pilferers at Lidl were using hammers to knock security tags from alcohol bottles while others were brazenly burning them off with cigarette lighters.
Workers at one store told us the pilferers changed tactics almost weekly to hoodwink them.
At the time mums were stashing stolen goods under prams and buggies carrying their kids, while others stuffed plastic bags from other stores with swiped stuff before paying for a few "legit" items.
Lidl rolled out body cameras in stores at a cost of over £2 million 18 months ago.
Also in 2024 we reported how crooked families were using five-year-old’s to steal from stores such as Poundstretcher in Croydon, south London.
Lucy Whing, Crime Policy Lead at the British Retail Consortium, said: “Criminals and organised gangs are targeting products that are easy to move and sell on.
“Retailers have invested over £5 billion in the last five years to tackle theft and crime, including plastic sliders on shelves, and security tags. Ultimately such theft is not a victimless crime, pushing up the price for honest shoppers.”
Lidl were contacted for comment.
Daily Star Sunday