East Midlands Airport duty-free thief stole ?5,500 worth of perfume …

A dad-of-two stole thousands of pounds worth of duty-free perfume from East Midlands Airport after buying cheap plane tickets ^[1]. Gareth Colcough entered the airport, went through security, stole £5,700 worth of duty-free items and then made an excuse to leave the airport instead of boarding his flight.

Following Colcough's second visit to the airport ^[2], staff at the duty-free shop noticed a large gap in the shelves. This was where the 43-year-old stolen a large amount of perfume.

Leicestershire Live reports ^[3] that he was easily traced because he had bought a flight ticket, and he was arrested by Leicestershire Police. On Wednesday, November 29, at Leicester Magistrates' Court, Colcough pleaded guilty to the thefts, in June and August of this year.

POLL: Is the government doing enough to help with the cost of living?^[4]

The court heard that only last month Colcough had been sentenced by a court in the West Midlands for similar thefts from the duty-free shop at Birmingham International Airport.

Sally Bedford, prosecuting, said: "These were pre-planned thefts on two different days. The defendant bought cheap plane tickets to fly from East Midlands Airport, went through security into the duty-free section and simply filled his bag with goods.

"Once he had gone through duty free he found a member of staff and gave them a story of why he didn't want to get on the aeroplane and was escorted back through the airport."

She said the Birmingham incidents were also "high-value thefts" and that most of the stolen items were never recovered. Ms Bedford said that for the Birmingham offences Colcough had been given a suspended sentence with 105 hours of unpaid work.

Sandeep Kaushal, representing Colcough, said that his client's grandmother, who had raised him, had died in May of this year, leading to Colcough turning to cocaine. He had a £50-a-day habit that led to his partner, who is the mother of his two children, throwing him out, causing him to have to move in with his father in Stoke on Trent as he built up a drug debt.

Mr Kaushal said: "He has been a historic drug user and the death of his grandmother resulted in him turning back to cocaine. This was his coping mechanism.

"His drug addiction got completely out of hand and he got petrified when he couldn't pay his drug debt. He felt this was his way out."

Mr Kaushal said Colcough had been off drugs for 10 weeks and had worked on an oil rig lined up for early next year, which would allow him to partially repay the duty-free business if he was not jailed. Colcough, of Shelton Farm Road, Stoke, was given a further suspended sentence of 12 weeks, suspended for a year.

He will have to do a further 100 hours of unpaid work and spend 10 days working with probation. The magistrates ordered him to pay £3,200 compensation to East Midlands Airport.

References

^{^} East Midlands Airport after buying cheap plane tickets (www.derbytelegraph.co.uk)
^{^} second visit to the airport (www.derbytelegraph.co.uk)
^{^} Leicestershire Live reports (www.leicestermercury.co.uk)
^{^} Is the government doing enough to help with the cost of living? (xd.wayin.com)