A serial shoplifter who was filmed kicking, spitting on and hitting a Co-op worker with a basket has walked free from court.
Lucile Willett, 34, was filmed carrying out the shocking acts after she was caught attempting to steal items from the shop in Faversham, Kent.
Having been asked to leave the store by a staff member, the thief begins to shout expletives and smash bottles of booze on the floor.
She is then physically forced out of the door but refuses to leave quietly and kicks a male shop worker, spits on him and tries to hit him with a shopping basket she has grabbed in the melee.
Staff members can be regularly heard telling the thug to ‘get out’ and one is heard talking to the police on the phone as she continues to strike the man with the basket.
They eventually manage to close and lock the automatic doors, but not before Willett manages to launch one more revolting spit in the direction of the staff member.
Willett, of Fostall Road, Faversham, was later arrested and charged with theft from a shop, assault by beating and criminal damage.
Kent Police said the offences related to eight separate incidents which happened between October 2022 and May 2024.
Willett appeared at Medway Magistrates’ Court on May 14, 2024, where she admitted the offences.
She was handed an 18-week sentence which was suspended for 18 months.
This astonishing incident is one of thousands that the Co-op has to deal with every day, a senior executive for the supermarket chain revealed.
Paul Gerrard, the company’s public affairs director, revealed that Co-op shops had been hit by a 44 per cent rise in shoplifting and a 35 per cent increase in violence and abuse against staff in the last year.
He claimed shoplifters were now using wheelie bins and builders’ bags to clear entire aisles of meat, sweets and booze to steal ‘huge volumes’ of goods to order.
Staff have also been removed from homes by the Co-op because they had been followed and threatened by the offenders, Mr Gerrard said.
Mr Gerrard told a Lords Home Affairs and Justice committee that this was the highest level of crime and abuse the company had ever seen.
A Co-op spokesperson said: ‘Retail crime is a significant societal issue in the UK, with over 100 Co-op shop workers abused every single day while they work, something which shouldn’t be part of the job.
‘We have urgently campaigned for a change in law to make shop worker abuse a standalone offence and call on the new Government to quickly implement this.’
It comes as police forces have largely stopped punishing shoplifters as the number of offences rises to record levels, official figures revealed.
Retail experts have repeatedly warned that the rise of shoplifting is being driven by the perception that it was a risk-free crime.
And the idea that most shoplifters are getting off scot-free is supported by newly uncovered statistics, which show all forms of punishment are in decline.
Just 431 shoplifters in the year to March received fixed penalty notices – the lowest form of punishment for goods under £100 – down 98 per cent from 19,419 a decade ago.
The use of cautions, which are added to an offender’s criminal record, has also plummeted from 16,281 in 2014 to only 2,077 in the last year – a drop of 87 per cent.
One Co-op worker was dubbed ‘Superwoman’ after she tackled a suspected thief and pinned him against a wall after he attempted to sprint out of a store in Edgeley, Stockport.
Wearing a baseball cap and Nike jumper, the man was filmed being chased through the store by three members of staff.
Clutching a bottle of detergent and what appeared to be a pack of meat, the fleet-footed thug skipped over a customer’s foot as they tried to trip him up.
But his luck run out when he reached the exit and came face-to-face with the furious female worker, who charged at him.