I steal luxury goods including steaks & champagne for rich clients – I earn £500 a day, reveals shameless gran
A SHAMELESS gran is shoplifting posh nosh to order — for the rich.
The thief, 65, steals luxury food and high-end tipples for customers in well-to-do areas.
She pockets up to £500 a day and boasts: “Business is booming. Everyone wants to save a few quid — no matter what they earn.”
The woman, who we are calling Lou, says her age is the perfect cover for her pilfering.
She pinches everything from fillet steak, lobster and champagne to Egyptian cotton sheets — taking half the price as “payment”.
Lou claims to have 60 clients who turn to her as they are feeling the pinch from soaring household bills, private school fees and mortgage hikes.
Many live in £3million-plus pads in London’s posh Belgravia and Knightsbridge.
Former party planner Lou said: “You’d never think these people would use a shoplifter.
“They are feeling the pinch so they choose to spend a lot less with me while still getting the same goodies.
“And yet the poshos really haggle. They’re the tightest with their money.”
The revelations come with shoplifting cases soaring amid the cost of living crisis. Last week it emerged Waitrose was offering free coffees to cops in the hope it will deter thieves.
Lou added: “I started with four or five clients but now I have up to 60, with a lot of them coming to me recently.
“I get them through word of mouth. I’ll only take new customers from trusted people. Once they realise they can save cash, they come back.”
Gran-of-five Lou said she goes out stealing as soon as a customer calls with a “shopping list”.
She said: “If I’m getting food, it needs to be fresh and cold. They don’t want it sitting in my freezer. I deliver.
“Some people invite me in, some don’t. I prefer not to go in and have them meet me in their car just in case anything did happen. I don’t want them to get in trouble.”
Lou targets posh stores such as Harvey Nichols and Harrods — where she “usually gets caviar”.
She added: “Stuff like that is for when people are out to impress. Maybe they’re having a party.
“They also like bottles of champagne. Not Moët but more expensive stuff like Bollinger.
“Sometimes they just say, ‘Get as many bottles as you can’ which is a dangerous thing to say to me as I do go a bit mad.
“Alcohol is very hard to get though. A lot of people want Grey Goose vodka. There’s a lot of toiletries on the lists — dog treats, too. There are nice £14 ones from Selfridges.
“A heck of a lot of fillet steak — people love that cut. It has to be over £20 though otherwise it’s not worth taking the risk.”
For food, she shuns cheaper supermarkets as her clients demand high-end. She said: “It’s got to be Waitrose or M&S. No one is going to pay me for Aldi.
“Someone once asked me for jars of coffee and eco-friendly cleaning products but I won’t do it as that’s pennies.”
Lou reckons she has mastered shoplifting, saying: “I’m a professional. When you go in a shop, you have to look like you own it.
“Look paranoid and you’ve no chance. The more brazen you are, the less suspicious you are.
“Sometimes I get the security guard to help me pack the bag. I use a special device I bought online to remove security tags.”
She turned to thieving eight years ago when she hit hard times after her husband died.
Her first job was for a mum at her granddaughter’s school. She then got calls from the woman’s pals and it “grew from there”.
Shoplifting was officially downgraded by the Government in 2014. Stealing goods worth less than £200 is a summary offence, often bringing a fine of only £70.
Lou has been caught several times, but has blamed her non-payment on “growing forgetful”.
She added: “To be honest, I’m getting too old for it. And for those people who want to judge me I say it’s my choice. They aren’t forced to buy stuff off me.”
