Peterborough city centre shoplifter jailed

A Peterborough shoplifter who stole from shops in the city centre has been jailed.

Aaron Kelley, 34, was captured on CCTV entering Tesco Express in Broadway on 18 June, where he concealed a bottle of vodka worth £19 in his jacket and left the store without paying.

Later that day, Kelley, of no fixed address, entered B&M in Bridge Street, where he picked up an air fryer worth £99 and ran out the shop, but was stopped by a security guard from a nearby shop who recovered the stolen item.

He was arrested on Monday (1 July) in Long Causeway, Peterborough city centre, after he was identified by officers as being wanted for the offences.

Kelley was charged with two counts of theft from a shop and appeared at Cambridge Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday (2 July), where he was sentenced to four weeks in prison and has been ordered to pay £19 in compensation to Tesco after admitting both offences.

PC Exposito, who investigated, said: “Thank you to the businesses for reporting these incidents to us so we were able to identify Kelley and arrest him.

“Retail crime in Peterborough city centre is something that we are continually tackling, including the introduction of a dedicated city centre PC last year as part of the Business Improvement District (BID), who is embedded into our city centre neighbourhood team and works closely with local businesses in many ways, such as working with them to identify prolific offenders.”