Britain’s most prolific shoplifter scores ANOTHER conviction: Serial fraudster is jailed for her 172nd offense as shop managers prepare for her release from prison next week

Shop owners, managers and their security teams will be watching Tanya Liddle’s one-woman crime wave next week.

Britain’s most prolific shoplifter is due to be released from prison next Monday after her 172nd conviction and a record of more than 400 arrests and 350 offences.

The offender is currently banned from all shops in the Northumbria Police area, except a pharmacy, supermarket and clothes shop.

During her latest string of crimes, in late August, she tried to leave stores with two shark vacuum cleaners, Pokémon cards, clothes, handbags, coffee and instant noodles. In March she was arrested for stealing chocolate worth £18 from a petrol station.

However, store staff say the ban “won’t stop her” – in fact, they will be watching and waiting for her, expecting her arrival early next week, usually in a bizarre disguise including a wig, oversized clothes and sunglasses, as she is scheduled to be released into the wild after several weeks in prison.

One store manager told MailOnline: “Tanya has been harassing us for many years. When he gets out of prison, he tries his luck in our store almost every day.”

And Emmeline Taylor, professor of criminology at City University, when asked if Tanya would commit a crime again, replied: “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing but expecting something different.”

The one-woman crime spree in Liddle is part of a much larger shoplifting epidemic which, according to the British Retail Consortium (BRC), costs retailers £1.8 billion a year.

More than 430,000 cases were recorded in 2023 – many of them repeat offenders – as reported yesterday, the worst figure on record.

Habitual thief Tanya will be free again next Monday following her 172nd conviction for trying to steal £72.50 worth of laundry products from a Newcastle Asda, where security caught her before she could escape.

The police were not called, but when she returned again the next day to try to steal clothes and a purse, she was arrested and later jailed again.

One local store owner even claimed she used her TikTok account, which has 1,400 followers, to teach people “how to avoid theft.” The post has since been deleted.

The Sunday Times reported that she appeared in court last week via video link from HM Prison Low Newton in Durham, where she was granted a conditional discharge, meaning she received no additional prison sentence for her 172nd prison sentence. conviction.

Emmeline Taylor told the newspaper: “The courts have frustrated all options and are not sure what else to do. In the case of drug-addicted criminals, the only effective treatment method is rehabilitation.

Liddle served time in prison in May and July this year, the newspaper reported, but on both occasions she served only half of her sentence, and her victims repeatedly said she was not “properly punished.”

A local supermarket manager, who asked not to be named, told MailOnline that Liddle spends most of the time when he’s not behind bars trying to steal from them.

“Although we apprehend her in most cases, we estimate she has stolen thousands of dollars from us.

“She was here just a few months ago and tried to walk past me with a lifetime of bags full of produce. Like many people, we are amazed that he is not serving a longer prison sentence.

“She doesn’t mind being arrested for a few weeks here and there, and we’ll be surprised if this ban actually works.

“It’s no wonder we regularly deal with shoplifters, given that even people like Tanya are not properly punished.”

In September, Northumbria Police banned her from almost all shops in the region for the next two years.

One local Poundland manager told The Sunday Times: “She was released from prison five weeks ago, on the same day she shoplifted again.”

At her sentencing hearing last week, she was told probation officers would provide her with a place to live after her release and help her apply for benefits.

Her defense attorney Jack Lovell reportedly said his client “takes full responsibility” for her thefts but is stuck in a “vicious cycle.”

“These are all basic issues that lead to her committing the crime in the first place.

“For the first time in a long time, she received support,” he said.

Liddle, 43, often wears large hats, wigs and sunglasses to avoid being recognized as he takes goods from stores in the northeast of the country where he has stolen so often over the years.

Last month, shop owners told MailOnline they simply couldn’t believe she wasn’t in prison despite being a walking crime wave.

In a recent crime she stole bags worth £1,500 from TK Maxx in Westmorland Retail Park, Cramlington

Tommy Moir, 27, manager of the Card factory in Gosforth shopping center, which Liddle was banned from entering in 2013, said: “She wears different wigs so people don’t recognize her when she walks in.

“When she comes in, we point her out to new staff members.

“She has a TikTok account where she showed people how to avoid theft, but the video was soon deleted.

“Only once did she steal a chocolate bar from us and the security at the door took it away, so we asked for it back.”

Liddle’s social media account has numerous videos showing her various wigs and hats. In one video, she can be seen lip-syncing to Michael Jackson’s “Smooth Criminal.”

The thief has now been given a civil injunction preventing her from entering all but three shops in the Northumbria Police Area, which covers an area of ​​2,000 square miles.

However, Tommy doesn’t think the ban will stop her from stealing goods all over town.

He continued: “I don’t know how the ban will work and how it will be strengthened. She will continue to try to enter various stores.

I don’t think anyone can do much more. If she went to prison, she would only get out for a few months and come back to do the same thing.

Local shop owner Sube Ikram does not think the measures taken are insufficient and says she should be in prison.

The 33-year-old, owner of Jolly’s Tech, said: “She stole an item worth £100 from us, we are a small business and we will never get that back.”

“Many people warned me about Tanya Liddle, everyone told me to be aware of her.

“He wears a really big coat so he can stuff things into his pockets quickly. She is very talented at what she does.

“She had been to Savers before and cleaned them up.

“These people should be sent away for the rest of their lives or given the treatment and help they need.

“They are harming society.”

Liddle was also previously banned from Belvedere Retail Park in Kingston Park in 2013.