Jail for thief behind one-man retail crimewave in Bestwood

The thief behind a one-man retail crimewave in Bestwood has been tracked down and jailed.

Corey Fawsitt will spend a hefty chunk of the next year behind bars as punishment for plaguing the area’s shops.

That’s after Fawsitt – in the space of just over three weeks – committed 34 separate shop thefts across Bestwood.

One store in Beckhampton Road was targeted no less than 31 times by the 22-year-old during the theft spree, between 4 January and 25 January.

Fawsitt also stole from a second shop on two occasions and shoplifted from a third between these dates, having previously taken items from Co-op in Beckhampton Road on 6 December too.

The prolific thief followed the same routine each time – darting into the store, grabbing hands full of low-value items from the shelves and then making a beeline for the exit.

There has been a spike in shop thefts across Bestwood in recent weeks, with the actions of Fawsitt – already subject to a criminal behaviour order banning him from entering these stores – a major contributing factor to this trend.

Tracking the shoplifter down has been one of the main aims of the neighbourhood policing team’s community patrols recently, with a wanted appeal also released in a bid to find him.

Within 24 hours of this media appeal going out, Fawsitt was spotted on 29 January in the Forest Fields area by officers, who managed to detain and put him in handcuffs when he tried and failed to run away.

He would subsequently go on to be charged with 35 counts of shop theft, resisting arrest, and breaching a criminal behaviour order.    

Fawsitt, of no fixed address, appeared at Nottingham Magistrates’ Court last Friday (31 January), where he pleaded guilty to each of the charges against him.

He was then sentenced that same day to one year in prison.

Sergeant Craig Purcell, of Nottinghamshire Police, said:

“Our neighbourhood policing team has spent a significant amount of time dealing with Fawsitt, so we’re naturally delighted to see him get his comeuppance.

“Despite the court issuing him with a criminal behaviour order and custodial sentences when we caught him previously, he elected to ignore these warnings and instead maintained his level of persistent thieving.

“This ultimately led to him targeting Bestwood stores on no less than 35 separate occasions in a matter of weeks, which is disgraceful.

“It would be no exaggeration whatsoever to describe him as being responsible for a one-man retail crimewave, with his offending skewing the area’s overall shoplifting rate as a result.

“Cracking down on so-called ‘acquisitive crimes’, like shop thefts, has been one of our neighbourhood policing priorities in the city north for some time now, so it’s great news for us on that front to see Fawsitt away from our shops and in prison.  

“The way he harassed and caused distress to store staff by targeting the same shops again and again was completely unacceptable.

“We hope the strong custodial sentence issued to Fawsitt sends a message out to anyone thinking of replicating his antics just how seriously this crime is as well as the consequences that can follow.”