‘I stole £3k-a-day in high street shoplifting sprees – it became an addiction’
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For one of the most productive thefts in the UK, each operation would begin in the same way.
The previous night, Cullan Mais would upload Google maps to his mobile phone and mark a route “fishing rod -like route in several towns to finish his hometown Cardiff.
He would call his driver and the next morning he would take a profitable theft madness by ventilating the goods worth £ 3,000; From food to sunglasses and even yankee candles.
Emphasizing the cooperative supermarkets, features and garden centers as among the best goals, 34 -year -old said, “I wouldn’t leave an empty shop empty, sometimes I would go two or three times.”
Wearing a trench coat, to avoid detection, to buy a package of gum until walking before walking up to the clothes could fit more than a dozen alcoholic drink alcohol. And it worked.
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“I had a generous lifestyle, because everything I need is for food, clothing, alcohol or something, I just stole it,” he said.
For more than 10 years, Mais estimated that it has stolen products worth 3 million pounds from stores, almost all have been evacuated to a “buyer” network for cash money to buy heroin.
Rarely caught.
In total, he was sentenced to imprisonment 10 times for theft. But nothing could stop him at the summit of his guilt, and Mais became as great as the excitement of theft and the drugs he took.
He said: “I was hitting more than one shop a day, so I would go quite well to get caught every two years, you know and I would still go to the shop the next day, even if it was £ 2,000.
“As I succeeded, there was an addiction that I received a buzz.”
Mais finally received help after running to the hospital with sepsis and pneumonia in 2020.
“I was at the bottom of the rock and then I knew I had to be cleaned,” he said.
He received rehabilitation to help him get rid of heroin and theft addiction. Now, he runs a podcast in which he hopes to help others trapped in the disturbing cycle.
The number of theft crimes recorded by the police in the UK and Wales broke another record with a 20 percent increase in 2024/25 and 20 percent.
Last month, the Interior Minister Yette Cooper announced a new crime to break the crime, a more visible policing and a stronger practice, a stronger practice to recover the confidence in policing.
But Independent The recent tradesmen are fighting against the wave of theft crimes.
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Mais reduces the increase in crimes to the cost of life costs and inadequate to cope with criminals. He even argues that there should be a special rehabilitation program for theft.
“Our justice system is broken,” he said. “I think more people need to be supported in the community, some should not go to jail because they did not go to jail. They leave the prison and re -emerged again.”
Police forces adopt an innovative approach to deal with theft.
2 disturbing rescue teams of West Midlands Police established in 2018, fight against theft It was fueled by drug addiction. Measures include the placement of criminals in housing rehabilitation and quality deprivation -based rescue communities.
Today, Mais said: “Now I have things I do, I educate people, I give them the hope that tradesmen lose more money and help those who are stuck in the same cycle like me and that they can change.” He said.
