Romanian Champagne thieves stole £30k of fizz from Morrisons' in just 62 supermarket trips

Romanian nationals Alexandru Voicu and David Enache targeted dozens of Morrisons stores over a seven-month drinks binge.

But the bubble burst when they were caught red-handed loading expensive bottles of plonk into a hire car outside a supermarket in Blackpool.

Voicu, 45, and 23-year-old Enache both pleaded guilty to conspiracy to steal. A judge told them the scale of their shoplifting had been “quite breathtaking.”

The two men were part of a gang which toured the country between March and October last year making scores of visits to Morrisons branches in search of high value goods, mainly alcohol including champagne and spirits.

They were captured on CCTV twice at a store in Kirkham, twice in Thornton, three times in Blackpool and another three times in Widnes on Merseyside.

Barrister Paul Brookwell, prosecuting, said that while Voicu and Enache had finally been caught stealing from the store on Amy Johnson Way, Blackpool, there was at least one other man who had not been apprehended and possibly a fourth who could not be identified.

Preston Crown Court was told three men were spotted by a security guard acting suspiciously in the Squires Gate supermarket. He recognised one of the three from a security bulletin that Morrisons had sent out to staff after a series of thefts from other stores.

The guard observed them on CCTV, with Enache going in and out of the building making small purchases yet leaving with bottles of drink hidden in his clothing. He was depositing the property in a car parked outside before repeatedly returning to the store.

Voicu was also caught on camera removing security tags from bottles of alcohol before handing them to Enache and a third man to smuggle out.

When police arrived the vehicle, a hire car, was searched and bottles worth £1,393 were discovered. Security tags were found discarded in the aisles of the store.

“These arrests (Voicu and Enache) followed a number of other shoplifting ventures carried out by the two defendants with at least one other,” said Mr Brookwell. “It was the 62nd in a series of these ventures which began in a store in Kirkham in March with a £1,450 theft of goods.”

Morrisons and the police conducted a detailed investigation supported by CCTV. It found the men had committed 42 offences in 62 visits to the company’s stores nationally.

The thefts were committed in 19 different police areas. It was estimated stock worth £30,346 had been taken over the seven-month long shoplifting spree, described by Mr Brookwell as “a sustained and systematic series of thefts from Morrisons stores”.

Judge Michael Maher heard Voicu had previous convictions for shoplifting in Spain in 2015/16. He had also committed offences in Staffordshire and Shropshire prior to the latest spree. Enache had no previous convictions.

Voicu’s defence lawyer Ellie McManus told the judge the latest offences had happened when he was “under significant financial pressure”. He had been paying for his mother’s medical care back in Romania and was also sending cash home every month to support his ex-wife and their two children.

He had come to the UK in 2003 but had recently been finding it difficult to maintain his financial obligations despite earning £2,400 a month working as a plasterer.

Ms McManus asked for a suspended prison sentence saying her client had expressed remorse for his crimes and said they had been “a mistake”. But Judge Maher questioned that saying Voicu’s attitude in interviews with a probation officer had been: “What’s the big deal? It’s just a shop.”

Enache’s lawyer said his client accepted he would be going to prison and, as an illegal immigrant who entered the UK in November 2023, he would be deported back to Romania. The 23-year-old had expressed regret and remorse for his actions.

He had come to the UK in the hope of earning “proper money” because his job in Romania was poorly-paid. But after getting employment in the Midlands the wages were low and so he had started offending because he was struggling for money.

Judge Maher said the two men had been part of a group “that had been responsible for targeting thefts of high value items, principally alcohol, from Morrisons stores the length and breadth of England and Wales.”

He told them: “Your criminality came to an end when you were caught red-handed at Blackpool Morrisons on the 25th of October last year.

“The scale of your shoplifting was quite breathtaking. Your offences were committed over 19 police force areas. These were carefully planned operations.

“You would regularly purchase small value items whilst having stolen high value items. You removed security tags from the bottles to prevent alarms being activated.

“To various degrees you both seem to think this is a victimless crime. It isn’t. The losses are passed on to honest hard-working shoppers. The money these shops have to spend to try and combat thieves like you have to be passed on to honest shoppers.”

Turning to Voicu he said: “You say this was a mistake. But stealing 62 times around the country is not a mistake, it’s a profession.

“You say you were working in the construction industry in Birmingham. You were earning £2,400 per month and you have been since 2020. There are plenty of teachers and medical staff in this country who earn those modest amounts but they don’t resort to theft to supplement their salary.

“So your offences were motivated principally by greed rather than necessity.”

He told Enache that he had illegally entered the UK in 2023 and “whatever aspirations you had to work legally quickly evaporated and so you turned to crime.”

He sentenced Enache to a total of 15 months in jail and Voicu to two years.

Both men, who gave their address as Stirling Road, Birmingham, are expected to be automatically deported when they are released from prison because their sentences are more than 12 months under the UK Borders Act 2007.